itK..:^r'*:^•^■:^^'■tv;;'l';■^^ 






















P, L. 61 - 40-M 2-10-«6. 



Greece of the Hellenes 



COUNTRIES AND PEOPLES 

SERIES 

Each in imperial 16 mo, cloth gilt, 

gilt top. With about 30 full-page 

plate illustrations. 

Italy of the Italians. By Helen 

ZiMMERN. 

France of the French. By E. 

Harrison Barker. 
Switzerland of the Swiss. By 

Frank Webb. 
Spain of the Spanish. By Mrs. J. 

Villiers-Wardell. 
Germany of the Germans. By 

Robert M. Berry. 
Turkey of the Ottomans. By Lucy 

M. J. Garnett. 
Belgium of the Belgians. By 

Demetrius C. Boulger. 
Holland of the Dutch. By D. C. 

Boulger* 
Japan of the Japanese. By Prof. 

J. H. Longford. 
Servia of the Servians. By Chedo 

MlJATOVICH. 

Austria of the Austrians and 

Hungary of the Hungarians. 

By L. Kellner, Paula Arnold, 

and a. L. Delisle. 
Russia of the Russians. By 

Harold Williams. 



Other Volumes in preparation. 



Greece of the Hellenes 



By 

Lucy M. J. ^arnett 

AUTHOR OF " TURKEV OF THE OTTOMANS," 

" MYSTICISM AND MAGIC IN TURKEY," ETC. 

TRANSLATOR OF " GREEK FOLK-POESY " 



NEW YORK 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

597-599 FIFTH AVENUE 

1914 



oOU i 






. g;^3 



By the same Author 

Mysticism and Magic in 
Turkey 

AN ACCOUNT OF THE RELIGIOUS 
DOCTRINES, MONASTIC ORGANISA- 
TION, AND ECSTATIC POWERS OF 
THE DERVISH ORDERS. 

By LUCY M. J. GARNETT. 

In crown 8vo, cloth gilt, with 
illustrations. 

" Miss Lucy Garnett has collected a great store 
of curious learning about the various monastic 
orders of Turkey. Here you may read much of 
their legendary origin, glance at fragments of their 
symbolical poetry, and follow curious descriptions 
of their rites of initiation, their singular cults, and 
their costumes and habits. The author's com- 
petence and industry are beyond doubt and 
praise." — Nation. 



Turkey of Hie Ottomans 

By LUCY M. J. GARNETT. 

In imperial 16mo, cloth gilt, with about 
30 full-page plate illustrations. 



TBAJfttFBA 

P. O, PUBLIC t,l3%AWi 






O*?^*'^ 

(•w* ->'«-^*- 



DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA PROPERTIT 



^RANSFERRE 



'8W^W 



10 LIBRARY 



CHAP, 

I. THE MODERN HELLENES . 

II. GOVERNMENT . 

III. ARMY, NAVY AND POLICE 

IV. JUSTICE .... 
V. THE MONARCHY 

VI. EDUCATION .... 

VII. LITERATURE AND ART 

VIII. THE CHURCH AND THE CLERGY 

IX. MONKS AND MONASTERIES 

X. NATURAL PRODUCTS AND COMMERCE 

XI. RURAL LIFE AND PURSUITS 

XII. URBAN AND SOCIAL LIFE 

XIII. FESTAL LIFE .... 

XIV. CLASSIC SURVIVALS 

XV. HOME LIFE AND WOMEN'S W(^RK 

XVI. FAMILY CEREMONIES 

XVII. TRAITS OF GREEK CHARACTER . 

• »• ■ .» 

INDEX . . ., Jt -i }.] "j-v. 



PAGE 
1 

14 

29 

41 

49 

60 

72 

87 

100 

116 

132 

146 

160 

179 

193 

209 

227 

243 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



THE HARBOUR OF THERA . 

A VILLAGER OF ELEUSIS . 

GYPSY GIRLS .... 

ISRAELITES OF SALONICA IN HOLIDAY COSTUME 

M, ELEVTHERIOS VENIZELOS 

M. GEORGE THEOTOKES 

M. SPIROS MERKOURIS 

ONE OF THE ROYAL BODYGUARD 

A CRETAN GENDARME 

HIS MAJESTY THE KING OF THE HELLENES 

HER MAJESTY QUEEN SOPHIA . 

H.R.H. THE CROWN PRINCE OF GREECE 

THE ROYAL PALACE, FROM THE PARTHENON 

THE NATIONAL MUSEUM, ATHENS 

ATHENS, THE AKROPOLIS . 

TEMPLE OF THE CARYATIDS, AKROPOLIS 

A GREEK PATRIARCH 

A GREEK PARISH PRIEST . 

THE CHURCH OF ST. GEORGE, SALONICA 

MONASTERY OF CARACALLA, MOUNT ATHOS 

THE PORT AND TOWN OF PIRiEUS 

MACEDONIAN PEASANT WOMEN . 

VILLAGERS OF EASTERN MACEDONIA . 

ATHENS FROM THE PROPYLEUM . 

A STREET IN SALONICA 

THE THESEUM 

A WOMAN OF MEGARA 

RUINS OF DELPHI. THE SACRED WAY AND THE 

ALTAR .... 

PEASANT WOMEN OF ELEUSIS 
A GREEK LADY IN NATIONAL DRESS 
THE MAMM^ .... 
MARATHON. TOMB OF THE 129 SLAIN ATHENIANS 



Frontispiece 

Pacing page 

8 

10 

12^ 

16 

22' 

28 

34- 

40 

50 

52 

54 

56 

76 

80 

84 

88 

92 

98 

106 

120 

138 

142 

146 

152 

166 

176 



GREAT 



180 

202 
206 
216 
240 



GREECE 
OF THE HELLENES 



CHAPTER I 

THE MODERN HELLENES 

The question whether the present inhabitants of Greece 
may claim to be hneal descendants of those who peopled the 

country in the age of its greatest glory has 

Mixture of occupied the attention of many eminent 

Greere*" scholars who, during the last half century 

or more, have propounded a variety of theories 
on the subject. Fallmerayer, for instance, maintained the 
old Greek race to be extinct ; but his theory has been effectu- 
ally refuted by the subsequent researches of Ross, EUissen 
and Kopf. Professor Mahaffy and Sir Richard Jebb have 
declared the modern Hellene to be not less Greek than his 
language ; while Dr. Philippson and Mr. Hogarth, among a 
number of other students, seem to agree that the inhabitants 
of the Hellenic Kingdom are a very mixed race, those among 
them who may be regarded as undoubtedly of Greek descent 
forming but one element in a vast Hellenised conglomerate 
of all the races that have, during the past two thousand years, 
invaded and settled in South-eastern Europe. Seeing, how- 
ever, that this Hellenic element was able to impose its language 
and traditions on all the other elements, it cannot have been 
very inconsiderable ; and the great number of Greek dialects 
in existence at the present day would seem to prove an 
independent continuity of tradition — and also, consequently, 
of Greek descent — ^in all .the various localities in which they 
are in use. 

1 

1— (3385) 



2 Greece of the Hellenes 

The average Greek of to-day, and more especially if he be 
a townsman, can hardly be regarded as a perfect t5rpe of 
physical beauty ; but neither probably was the average 
Greek of Praxiteles' day. Yet one may from time to time 
meet, ahke in the Hellenic Kingdom, in the islands and 
coastlands of the iEgean, and in both the higher and the 
lower strata of society, with a type of quite classical purity — 
the broad low forehead, the straight nose, dark lustrous eye 
and firmly rounded chin and throat of ancient statues. The 
figure, too, of one of these classic survivals will usually be 
above the middle height, erect and well poised, the hands 
and feet small, the latter often exhibiting the peculiarity 
noticeable in Greek statuary of the second toe being of the 
same length as the first. The mixture of races in Greece is, 
however, forcibly illustrated by the diversity of types found 
within the limits of the Greek Kingdom, a certain type being 
as a rule special to a certain district, though representatives 
of all may be found among the populations of the larger 
towns, and the streets of Athens offer excellent opportunities 
for studying these various t5rpes. For here may be seen — 
possibly forming a single group in a kafeneion — the swarthy, 
black-eyed, Asiatic-looking peasant of Thessaly, the brown 
or fair-haired and blue-eyed Messenian or Arcadian, the 
long-headed Islander from Chios, and perhaps a further 
tjrpe seemingly akin to neither, with a skin of clear olive 
utterly different from that of either the southern Spaniard 
or the Italian. The blue-eyed type is found here and there in 
other parts of the Peloponnesos, as also among the Sphakiote 
highlanders of Crete who so long bravely withstood the armies 
of the Sultan. And in the remote village of Apeiranthotes 
in the island of Naxos dwells a community believed to be of 
Cretan origin, for the most part blonde in complexion, and 
speaking a dialect of its own, the members of which continue 
to be regarded by their neighbours as strangers and foreigners. 
This type is, indeed, most common in the wilder parts of 
Greece where the inhabitants have had from time immemorial 



The Modern Hellenes 3 

little or no intercourse with the outside world ; and it is in 
such localities that the most perfect types of the Greek race 
are still to be met with. 

Isolated from the rest of the Peloponnesos by geographical 
boundaries and lack of communication by land, two distinct 

elements of the population, both presenting 
_, J curious and interesting features, are to be 

found respectively on the easternmost and the 
midmost of the three mountainous southern promontories 
of the Morea. On the former, the ancient Laconia which 
terminates in Cape Malea, dwell the Tzakones, a race who 
formerly occupied all the territory between this cape and 
ArgoHs, but now number only about 15,000 famihes, two- 
thirds of whom inhabit the town of Leonidi on the Gulf of 
Nauplia, the remainder being found in a number of villages 
between Nauplia and Monembasia. In mediaeval times 
their vessels traded throughout the Levant and served 
in the fleets of the Byzantine Emperors, a considerable colony 
of Tzakone famihes being established at Constantinople, 
where their skill as mariners was greatly appreciated. At 
the present day they enjoy the reputation of being an honest 
and peaceable people, still making use among themselves of 
an idiom which has been pronounced by philologists to be a 
survival of a Doric dialect, the digamma being preserved in 
some words, and the Doric alpha used in place of the Attic 
eta. The Athenian philologist Dr. Deffner, who has made a 
special study of the Tzakones and their language, regards 
this people as the descendants of the ancient Lakonians, and 
their speech — which is of a more ancient type than any other 
surviving Greek dialect — he terms Neo-Doric. There is 
accordingly some warrant for the assumption that the 
Tzakones are more directly descended from the ancient 
inhabitants of Greece than is any other section of its 
present population. And though the Greek schoolmaster 
is abroad in Laconia as elsewhere, this old Doric speech 
will probably long continue to be spoken in that province, 



4 Greece of the Hellenes ' 

and especially by the denizens of its remoter mountain 
hamlets. 

The narrow rocky promontory of Mane or Maina, ter- 
minating in Cape Matapan, is the home of another distinct 

element, the Manidte, or Mainotes, who 
Ma otes remained pagan until nearly the end of the 

ninth century, and among whom the clan 
system still prevails, together with other somewhat primitive 
social conditions. Notorious as pirates in former centuries 
were the Mainotes — a certain section of them at least ; but 
at the present day their roving instincts find no outlet beyond 
emigration to America, while their fighting instincts lead 
many into the army both as officers and soldiers by profession. 
As their native province offers few chances of a livehhood, 
a considerable number of young men betake themselves to 
other parts of Greece in search of more profitable employ- 
ment, and many Mainotes may be found among the miners 
,:9,t Lavrion and the factory operatives at the Piraeus. The 
small amount of agricultural labour called for in Maina is 
undertaken chiefly by the women, and the sturdy Mainote 
mother, while about her household avocations, hangs her 
baby in its sheepskin bag on a peg fixed in the wall, and 
when at work in the field or garden suspends it from the 
nearest tree, where it rocks safe from prowhng wolf, fox or 
eagle. 

Though to a great extent a land of rocks, Maina is not, 
however, all barren, its most arid region, Mesa-Maina, Ijnng 
along the central mountain ridge and the sea-surrounded spur 
of Matapan, where grain is a luxury and the main articles of diet 
consist of a black bread made from lupin beans — the " grapes 
of Maina," and the fruit of the wild cactus. On the lower 
levels the olive and the vallonia oak flourish, the fruit of the 
latter and the oil produced from that of the former being 
exported, as are also the quails caught in great numbers in 
certain localities one of which, Porto Quaglio, derives its name 
from these delicious little birds. 



The Modern Hellenes 5 

The Mainotes claim to be descended from the ancient 
Spartans, and boast that they have never been conquered ; 
nor have they certainly willingly submitted to foreign control. 
Villehardouin, however, was able in 1468 to build his castle 
of Grant Maigne near Matapan ; and in 1601 Mane was ravaged 
by Catalonian invaders. But though thirteen years later 
they were compelled by the Turks to acknowledge their 
supremacy and pay an annual tribute, its inhabitants never 
permitted a Turkish governor to take up his residence among 
them. The tribute also would appear, however, to have 
been merely nominal, consisting of as many gold coins as 
would cover the blade of a sabre. According to one tradition, 
it was always thus presented to the Ottoman authorities, 
though anothel asserts that it was tendered in a purse 
suspended on a sabre-point. A special system of taxation 
has also survived in Maina, as in Corfu, the Mainotes con- 
tributing to the State merely an export duty on olive oil. 
Like mountaineers generally, the Mainotes are not without 
many rugged virtues, their notions of hospitality being very 
strict, and the protection of a guest esteemed a sacred duty. 
A host will, indeed, deem himself in honour bound to defend 
even with his life a stranger who may have sought safety under 
his roof. 

A considerable number of the once numerous mediaeval 
fortified towers of Maina have survived the order for their 

destruction issued by the Government of 
V ndSta ^^^S Ot^o 6^rly in the last century, and 

within their loopholed walls the clansmen 
still take refuge during the terrible blood-feuds that still from 
time to time arise between Mainote families. For while 
far less common now than formerly, the vendetta — which 
would indeed seem to have originated in Maina ^ — still sur- 
vives, notwithstanding its condemnation by the law of the 

1 The vendetta of Corsica is supposed to have been introduced into 
that island by a colony of Mainotes which settled in 1673 at Cargese, 
where their descendants are still to be found. 



6 Greece of the Hellenes 

land. And in the opinion of those well acquainted with the 
country it is owing to the persistence of this unwritten social 
code that crimes of violence are less frequent in Maina than 
in the rest of Greece, the consequences being there of such a 
serious character. For in a case of vendetta, all the male 
relatives of a murdered man are in duty bound to avenge 
his death by killing, if not the actual murderer, the most 
important member of his family, who collectively, according 
to the local phrase, " owe blood." The unwritten code of 
the vendetta is, however, regulated by a rigid method of 
procedure, and a system of strict etiquette is observed in 
carrying out this local conception of justice. No Mainote, 
for instance, will enter on a blood-feud without due notice 
to his enemies, or attack him outside Maina. If a member 
of a threatened family, or even the actual murderer himself, 
is under the necessity of quitting his fortified tower in the 
course of a feud he may do so with impunity if escorted by 
a friend unrelated to either party, as xevgaltes. ^ Any man also 
who may be acting as guide to a guest or stranger is allowed 
to pass on his way unharmed. Under no circumstances 
is a woman ever molested ; and during the progress of a ven- 
detta the women and girls of a family or clan go freely forth 
from the beleaguered strongholds to bring water to their 
inmates. When it is desired to end a blood-feud, a request 
to that effect is conveyed to the relatives of the injured family, 
and, if acceded to, every member of the murderer's clan must 
accompany their chief to ask forgiveness for the crime. In 
presence of all, the chief kneels, and the murdered man's 
nearest of kin asks him " Wilt thou do my behest ? Wilt 
thou, if I bid thee, cast thyself into the sea ? " The chief 
replies in appropriate phrase, and the reconciliation effected, 
the mother of the man last slain in the feud adopts his slayer 
as her son, he on his side solemnly engaging to regard her as 
more than a mother. Such a reconciliation is termed an 
Agdpe, and is never known to be broken. 
1 Derived from the verb ^evyda-ai, " I accompany." 



The Modern Hellenes 7 

The Latin element in the Greek population must be looked 
for chiefly in the islands, and especially in the Cyclades, where 

it was introduced during the long domination 
Greeks of jj^ those islands of the Venetian and other 

Itclian adventurers who, at the time of 
the Fourth Crusade, carved out for themselves principalities 
from the decaying Byzantine Empire, and proved formidable 
rivals of the Turks in the Levant. Naxos, the largest and 
fairest of the Cyclades, was ruled by Latin Dukes for a period 
of three and a half centuries ; Mykonos and Tenos also 
remained in Venetian hands until the end of the seventeenth 
century ; and Corfu had been a possession of the Republic 
of St. Mark for 4W years when in 1797 that island was captured 
by the French Syra contains a mediaeval and Catholic 
Latin town as iveti. as the modem Greek town of Hermou- 
polis, which dftes from the beginning of last century only, 
when Sciote fagitives from Turkish tyranny sought refuge 
in that island And at Tenos and Mykonos representatives 
may also be bund of the noble Venetian families by whom 
they were formerly ruled. Some of these formerly Roman 
Catholic faiiihes now conform to the national Orthodox 
creed, though a considerable number have remained faithful 
to the Church of their fathers which, in these localities, is 
served by in enlightened clergy of French nationality. 

Of Latn race must also be considered the Vlachs or 
Wallachs In Southern and Central Greece this element 

of the population is chiefly represented by 
V ads ^^® shepherds who, roaming in summer with 

their immense flocks of sheep and goats over 
thf mountains and in winter encamping in the lowlands, 
fom a strange and picturesque feature of Greek rural life. 
S) essentially pastoral and nomadic in its propensities is 
iideed one section of this people that their very name has 
become among the surrounding races a sjmonym for 
" shepherd." Previously to the Ottoman Conquest, the 
Vlachs occupied the plains of Thessaly in such numbers 



8 Greece of the Hellenes 

that the province had acquired the name of " Great 
Wallachia," while ^toha and Acarnania were termed " Little 
Wallachia." A considerable section of the Vlachs, however, 
including all those of the burgher class, retired before the 
invading Turks into the mountain ranges of Pelion and 
Olympus w'lere they founded new settlements, the most 
considerable of which are Voskopoli-^" The Shepherd's 
Town," Vlf o-Uvadia— " The Meadows of the Vlachs " on 
the western )pes of Olympus, and Mezzovo in the heart of 
Pindus. Mt. .ovo is the most picturesque situated town it is 
possible to imagine, chnging to both sides of a. subhme ravine, 
and overhung by the highest crests of Pindus which tower 
so perpendicularly on either hand that noj till long after 
sunrise is the ProsSlion {irp6<i rjXiov) or " Suilpyside," of the 
town out of shadow ; while the opposite side is appropriately 
termed the Anelion {dv rjXiov) or " Sunless." \ Several Vlach 
villages surround the town, the most remarkabUpf these being 
Kalyarites, standing as it does on a hillside so s\eep that the 
highest houses are 500 feet above the lowest, anci every street 
is a zigzag staircase. \ 

V The roving propensities of the Vlachs abovejef erred to 
are not confined to the shepherd class, the burners being 
also for the most part engaged in pursuits which remire them 
to lead a more or less nomadic life. Among them aie wealthy 
merchants who trade in all the countries of soutiern and 
central Europe, and return only occasionally to their riountain 
homes, besides more humble traders travelHng only wth their 
pack-mules in Greece and the Balkan States carrying goods 
for sale in the smaller towns and villages of the interior, ike 
the peddlers in England in bygone days when, as still in t\e 
East, shops were few in the towns and non-existent in ruril 
districts. And in all the towns of Greece and the Balkan 
Peninsula generally may be found an industrial class of Vlachs 
who work there for the greater part of the year at various^ 
handicraft trades. 
Among the most numerously represented people of 




Alinari 



Florence 



A VILLAGER OF ELEUSIS 



The Modem Hellenes 9 

non-Hellenic race established in Greece are the Albanians 
who form a valuable element of the population, and, though 
resident in some parts of the country for over 
Albanian ^qq yg^j-g^ have still retained not only their 
native tongue and their own manners, customs 
and costumes, but also to a great extent a separate corporate 
existence. Descending first into Thessaly early in the 
fourteenth century from Southern Albania, they successfully 
disputed the ground with the pastoral Vlachs already settled 
there, and a hundred years later were invited by the Frankish 
Duke of Athens, Antonio Acciajuoli, to colonise the province 
of Attica, which had been depleted of its population by the 
plague and by Ottoman invasions. Lands in the centre and 
south-west of the Peloponnesos had also towards the end of the 
fourteenth century been conferred on colonies of Albanians by 
the Byzantine Governor of Mistra ; and subsequently, under 
the Despot Theodore Palaeologos I, 10,000 Albanian famihes 
were also settled in other parts of the same peninsula. During 
the Greek War of Independence, Albanian volunteers fought 
side by side with the Greek patriots and figured in not a few of 
the most heroic episodes of that heroic struggle. At the present 
day a considerable extent of Attica is people by Albanians. 
At Eleusis the country folk wear the Albanian costume and 
speak among themselves a dialect of Albanian in addition to 
the vernacular Greek. Some of the islands of the ^Egean also, 
and notably Hydra, Spetsai and Aigina, contain Albanian 
settlements ; and emigrants of this race from Thessaly were 
introduced into southern Euboia and northern Andros, 
both of which islands had been largely depopulated by 
Turkish corsairs in the later years of Venetian domination 
in these waters. Save at Corfu, however, where descendants 
of the exiled Souliots may be found at the village of Kanahon 
Arvanetikou, no Albanians inhabit the Ionian Islands. 

Greek influence has for centuries past moulded not only 
that section of the Albanian race domiciled within the region 
included for nearly a century past in the Greek Kingdom, 



10 Greece of the Hellenes 

but also the Tosks or Southern Albanians generally, all of 

whom profess the creed of the Orthodox Church ; and it is 

often difficult to distinguish between Greek and Tosk not only 

in Greece but also in Epirus and Macedonia. The Greek 

language is very extensively used by the Tosks, who also 

write their own language in Greek characters ; while, on the 

other hand, the Hellenes have adopted as their own the 

national costume of their Albanian neighbours, the white 

fusianella, or kilt, forming a distinctive feature of the Tosk 

branch of this race. The Albanian of the Peloponnesos has, 

however, become much more completely Hellenised than his 

compatriot settled in Attica, who has hitherto more or less 

preserved his native tongue. 

Despite the tolerance displayed by the Greeks in their own 

country towards members of other rehgious systems, few 

Turks now remain in the country, though a 

D J;" f considerable number of Moslems were to be 
Kemnant. , , . ,^, , . . . 

found m Thessaly for some years after its 

peaceable cession to Greece in 1882. ^ These were for the 
most part descendants of the 6,000 families from Anatolia who, 
at the end of the fourteenth and beginning of the fifteenth 
centuries migrated from Iconium, the modern Konia, and 
settled on the Thessalian plains. By the neighbouring popu- 
lations they were known as Koniaridhes, or men of Konia, 
a term which distinguished them from the Ottoman Turks 
who subsequently overran South-eastern Europe. After the 
treaty by which — notwithstanding the Turkish victories of 
1897 — that province again reverted to Greece, national pride, 
combined with other causes, impelled the great Turkish 
Beys to abandon the lands which they had for centuries 
occupied as a Moslem aristocracy, and in many towns and 
villages once inhabited by a numerous Turkish population not 
one Moslem family is now to be met with. It is, indeed, only 
here and there that a small community of Moslems now 

^ After the cession to Greece of Thessaly, two Moslem notables 
of this province were elected Deputies and sat in the Greek Chamber. 



The Modern Hellenes 11 

remains in a provincial town or village of Thessaly, and 
before long the ruined mosques and the system of land tenure 
will be probably the only remaining vestiges of Ottoman rule 
in that province. The Moslems of Crete — contemptuously 
termed by their fellow-islanders Turkolddes, but differing 
only in faith from the other inhabitants — who formerly con- 
stituted one-third of the population of that island, have, 
since the establishment of Cretan autonomy, diminished to 
one-tenth. With the revision of the map of the Balkan 
Peninsula made necessary by the results of the recent war, 
a very considerable Moslem population will, however, tem- 
porarily at least, again be included within the frontiers of 
the Hellenic Kingdom. 

In a village a few miles to the north of Athens one may 
come across a little colony of Bavarians founded in 1837 

during the reign of King Otho, who are easily 
rf^^"^^ distinguishable from their neighbours by their 

fair hair and blue eyes, if not by their speech, 
Greek being more readily spoken by the present generation 
than the German of their grandparents. In the Church of 
this Bavarian colony service is still performed according to 
the Roman rite, and in the adjoining graveyard, though 
the tombstones bear the Greek lettering, the names of those 
resting below are invariably German. 

Tolerant, however, though the Greeks may be ofQcially 
and individually towards their fellow -subjects of other races 

and creeds, towards the Hebrews the collective 

Jewish feeling has been, and still is, more or less 
Settlements. ,.,■..,, , . , 

hostile. Jewish settlements have certainly 

existed in Greece from very early times, and especially in 

the track of its Frankish invaders, Hebrew communities being 

still found in localities where their special commercial abilities 

find scope, as, for instance, at Athens, in the towns of Thessaly, 

at Chalkis in Euboea and in some of the Ionian islands. In 

Corfu, where the export trade in olive oil, wine, etc., affords 

an opening for their capacities, they are found to the number 



12 Greece of the Hellenes 

of 3,000 souls, and still occupy a separate quarter of the 
town which is known as " Hebrew Town," as also at Zante. 
Nowhere stronger than among the Greeks has also been the 
mediaeval hatred of the Jews, or more frequent the Judenhetze 
excited by reports of " ritual murders " perpetrated in their 
ghettos, of which the victims have usually been Greek boys 
whose mutilated bodies were subsequently found on river 
marge or seashore. An instance of such a crime is recorded 
in a curious early eighteenth century Greek ballad of Zante, ^ 
and in an Act preserved in the archives of the Church of St, 
Nikolas of the Foreigners the event is referred to at 
considerable length. ^ Some twenty years ago the Corfiote 
Greeks brought a similar accusation against their Jewish 
fellow-townsmen, and a serious riot ensued. And during 
my residence at Smyrna the coincidence of a Greek child 

having been found drowned in the river 
"Judenhetze." Meles at Passover-tide gave rise to a 

Judenhetze which might have assumed serious 
proportions but for the prompt action of the Ottoman 
authorities in dispersing the rioters. The Greek population 
openly attacked Jews in the main thoroughfares, and the 
assailed, not daring to retaliate, sought refuge in the khans of 
the foreign merchants and the courtyards of the Consulates, 
The incorporation of Salonica into the Greek Kingdom will 
also add some 80,000 souls to the Jewish element in the 
country, the majority of the population of that important 
city being of the Hebrew persuasion. A colony of this race 
appears to have been settled here from very ancient times — 

^ A translation of this ballad may be found in my Greek Folkpoesy, 
Vol. 1, p. 290. 

* The Act thus concludes : " After these events, the municipality 
of Zante promulgated a decree that the Jews, who had previously 
been restricted to no particular quarter, should thenceforward be 
confined to the Ghetto, which consists of two narrow streets intersecting 
each other so as to form a cross. The ends of these streets were walled 
up, gates only being left, over which were placed the arms of St. Mark 
and the inscription in cruce quia crucifixerunt. (Compare 
ChioTIS 'IcrropiKa ' Airo/xv7iiJ.ov(vfj.aTa. Vol. 3, p. 348.) 




ISRAELITES OF SALONICA 
In Holiday Costume 



The Modern Hellenes 13 

according to local tradition from the reign of Alexander of 
Macedon ; and the expulsion of the Jews from Spain by 
Ferdinand and Isabella in 1493 caused so great an influx at 
Salonica as to cdnvert the former compara- 
Spamsh tively insignificant colony into the largest 
in existence. The overwhelming numbers of 
the immigrants appear, indeed, to have completely absorbed 
the native Jewish element ; and the Hispano-Hebraic idiom 
which they brought with them has long been both the vernacu- 
lar and hterary language of the race throughout the Levant. 
Under Ottoman rule the Greeks and Jews of Salonica have 
not loved one another ; and what their mutual relations will 
be now that the Hellenes are the ruhng minority can hardly 
yet be foreseen. 

Communities of Gypsies are known to have arrived in the 
Greek Islands early in the fourteenth century, and by 1346 
had reached Corfu. Their encampments may 
Gypsies. still be met with here and there on the main- 
land also. In Northern Greece they are 
perhaps more common, considerable numbers, both sedentary 
and nomad, inhabiting the Balkan peninsula. The Tv^rot, as 
this race is termed by the Greeks, often pursue the calling of 
smiths for which the name has become almost a sjmonym. 
Though professing in some localities Christianity and in 
others the creed of the Prophet, the Gypsies are equally 
execrated by Hellenes and Ottomans ; and according to the 
Greek folk-ballads connected with Good Friday, it was a 
" Gypsy dog " who was commissioned by the Jews to shape 
the nails used at the Crucifixion, and for that deed was cursed 
by the Virgin Mary — 

" Unto the Smith they hurried them, three nails they bade him make 
them : 
And he that day not three alone, but five nails for them fashioned. 



' Thou dog, thou Gypsy dog,' she cried, ' Heat thou no coals 
henceforward ! 
Should'st thou henceforward embers light, the wind away shall 
bear them I ' " 



CHAPTER II 

GOVERNMENT 

"The Government of the Hellenic Kingdom is based primarily 

on the Constitution of 1864 which, having been framed at a 

period of great national excitement, is even more democratic 

in character than the original Constitution of 1844. Under 

this charter, the country is governed by a single Chamber of 

Representatives, styled the Boule, with a Cabinet composed 

of seven Ministers of State in addition to the Prime Minister. 

The number of Deputies composing the Greek Chamber 

has varied considerably. For though by the terms of the 

Constitution it must not consist of fewer 

The Chamber ^j^ jgQ ^ which minimum number of 

of Deputies. . 

members it was reduced in 1886 by the late 

M. Trikoupis, no provision seems to have been made against 
over representation ; and at the beginning of the present 
century this number had, for party purposes, been so increased 
that no fewer than 234 Deputies were returned by twenty-one 
electoral divisions. Two successive leaders of the Chamber, 
M. Theotokes and M. Mavromichalis, made unsuccessful 
attempts to correct this abuse ; but it was not until the 
accession to office of M. Venizelos, the present Prime Minister, 
that a measure of reform was carried, reducing the number of 
parliamentary representatives to 181. 

Greek Deputies, as well as Ministers, receive paj^ment for 
their services to the nation, though by no means on a lavish 
scale, the former being entitled to the sum of 1,800 drachmcB 
(about £]2) for each ordinary session, with a further sum of 
from 1,000 to 1,500 drachmcB {{AQ to £60) for special sessions 
when such are held, the amount being decided by the Boule 
itself, subject to the approval of the Minister of Finance, 
Ministers receive, including allowances, the modest salary 

14 



Government 15 

of £57 per month, without pension ; while the emoluments 
of the Premier are only slightly in excess of that sum. 

The Cabinet, as above mentioned, is composed of eight 
Ministers including the Premier, who represent respectively 
Foreign Affairs, War, Marine, Finance, the 
c b t Interior, Education (which includes Ecclesias- 
tical affairs), Commerce (which includes 
Agriculture and National Economy), and Justice. Ministers 
may hold office without having been elected as Deputies ; 
but in that case, though entitled to speak in the Chamber, 
they cannot vote. Until quite recently a Deputy was required 
to be over thirty years of age, and also, if not a native of the 
constituency he aspired to represent, to have enjoyed civic 
and political rights in it for at least two years prior to his 
candidature. One of the many important reforms introduced 
by the present government has, however, reduced the age 
limit of Deputies and removed the former restriction as to 
domicile. Officers of the Army and Navy were, until lately, 
eligible as Deputies ; but this participation of officers in active 
politics had the reverse of good results in the Chamber, and by 
a recent enactment they are now debarred from election. 
Elections are nominally for four years, but a Greek Parliament 
seldom lasts so long, and has occasionally been dissolved 
before as many weeks had elapsed. Each Candidate is 
required to contribute about ;^8 to the expenses of the Return- 
ing Officer ; but this sum represents only a small proportion 
of his necessary outlay, the cost of contesting a constituency 
varying greatly according to locality. A wealthy candidate 
is, however, expected to spend freely, and elections are said 
to have cost some Deputies as much as £1 per vote. The 
poU takes place on the same day throughout the country ; 
manhood suffrage holds sway ; and the system followed is 
that of the secret ballot. 

The opening of the Greek Parliament is observed as a 
great social function which partakes also of a semi-rehgious 
character. Ministers attend in evening dress, the clergy in 



16 Greece of the Hellenes 

their vestments, while ladies are accorded places in the 
body of the Chamber. The proceedings, which commence 

at 10 a.m., are opened by the installation 
^^p 9?®"'"^^ of a temporary President, and then follows 

a solemn service of consecration by the 
Metropolitan, as the Archbishop of Athens is termed, assisted 
by other ecclesiastical members of the Holy Synod, and a 
number of priests and deacons. This concluded, the 
Metropolitan, followed by the Premier, advances to a table 
placed in the centre of the hall on which stands a large gilt 
vessel containing holy water. The latter kisses the Cross 
held out to him by the Prelate, who, dipping a sprig of olive 
in the water strikes him lightly with it on the brow. When 
the other Ministers who have followed have also accomplished 
this rite, the Premier reascends the tribune to read the Royal 
decree convoking the Chamber, at the conclusion of which 
the proceedings terminate. At the next sitting the election 
of the Speaker takes place, it being customary to appoint a 
new one every session. This is an important political event, 
being looked upon as a test of party strength. The names 
of the Deputies are then called over in the alphabetical order 
of their Constituencies, to see if they form a quorum. The 
Constitution of 1864 fixed the quorum at one-half, plus one, 
of the total number of members of the Chamber, a provision 
which has been responsible for much parliamentary ob- 
struction. The number necessary to form a quorum has, 
however, been greatly reduced under the reforming govern- 
ment of M. Venizelos. New members are then sworn in by the 
Chaplain of the Chamber, a conspicuous figure in his black robes 
and tall black head-dress, and cries of Axios — " Worthy " ! 
resound from the benches. The Chamber then proceeds to elect 
its new President. Two tellers are chosen, two ballot-boxes 
placed on the tribune, and the list of Deputies is again called 
over. The members for each constituency advance in groups 
and drop into one of the boxes a paper containing the name of 
one candidate for office, a teller dropping simultaneously a ball 



»«,^«^>f««»s.,^ .H«.. ««.aw«i« ^ffl&>^._.»^aaL4?.. . . , j.^ , ,„ ^,^„ H,ii„^mi§i \ 




M. ELEVTHERIOS VENIZELOS 
Prime Minister of Greece 



Government 17 

into the other to check the number of voters, while the clerk 
at the table also crosses off from a list each member's name as he 
records his vote. The balls and papers are then respectively 
counted, and the result is announced by the acting President, 
who at once yields his place to the newly elected President, 

Deputies address the Chamber either from the benches 
or from the President's tribune, as they may prefer. Good 
speakers, as a rule, adopt the latter position 
Deputies. for their harangues, though it has the dis- 
advantage of placing them with their backs 
not only to the Chair, but to the gallery behind it assigned 
to the Diplomatic Corps. Though Deputies, as a rule, 
address each other in courteous phrase, a speaker is 
liable to be interrupted by political opponents, when an 
interchange of unseemly personalities may follow, the presi- 
dential bell requiring to be repeatedly sounded before order 
is again restored and the business of the House can be 
proceeded with. Duels arising out of parliamentary criti- 
cisms are also not unusual, and have indeed been at times of 
such frequent occurrence as to cause little general excitement, 
especially as neither of the parties concerned were much, if 
at all, the worse for the encounter. 

With the advent to power in November, 1910, of the present 

Prime Minister, a period of political reform was inaugurated 

which cannot but prove of the greatest benefit to the 

Hellenic Kingdom. And a brief sketch of the previous 

career of this remarkable man will not, I trust, be deemed 

out of place here. Born in the island of Cerigo in 1864, 

and educated at the Universities of Athens and Lausanne, 

M. Eleutherios Venizelos, on returning home, soon became 

intimately associated with the leaders of all the various 

Greek political parties among whom he 

^* ?^®."*^®'^^°® speedily acquired a position of considerable 

influence. In 1896 he first identified himself 

with the aspirations of the Christians of Crete for union with 

Greece by holding, with a party of friends, the fortress of 

2— (3385) 



18 Greece of the Hellenes 

Malaxa, near Candia, against the warships of the Great Powers. 
On the appointment in 1898 of Prince George as High Com- 
missioner of that island, M. Veniz^los was offered and 
accepted a post in the Council formed to assist him in his nevgB 
duties, and measures for the regeneration of Crete were at" 
once inaugurated, M. Venizelos continuing to serve the 
local government with great loyalty and ability until August, 
1909, when the unanimous invitation of the Party of Reform 
opened up to him a wider sphere of political usefulness. 
Fifteen months later (November, 1910), M. Venizelos and his 
supporters were returned at the polls with a large majority, 
and he assumed the leadership of the Chamber with the 
dual portfolios of War and the Marine. Possessed of a thorough 
practical knowledge of both military and naval affairs, he 
speedily gave evidence, as Minister of the sister Services, of 
unusual administrative talent. The subsequent general election 
of March, 1912, again resulted in the return to office of the 
Party of Reform, and this time with an overwhelming 
majority, having secured 150 out of a possible 181 seats, 
the remaining thirty-one being divided among no fewer than 
five different parties, those of MM. Theotokes, Rallis, 
Mavromichalis, Zaimes, and the small party of so-called 
" Independents." 

This powerful and at the same time cohesive majority 
has enabled M. Venizelos practically to revise the Con- 
stitution with regard, at least, to all such 
Political enactments as were found to stand in the 
way of necessary reforms, and also to make 
possible further revision, in the future, of its non-fundamental 
provisions. Among the large number of important adminis- 
trative changes that have since come into effect may be 
mentioned (1) the creation of a Council of State entrusted 
with the double duty of acting as a consultative body, and of 
drafting Bills for presentation to the Chamber ; (2) the 
creation also of a special legal tribunal for verifying the 
mandates of Deputies, which had previously been dealt with 



Government 19 

by a naturally biassed Chamber ; (3) the transference of 
responsibility for elementary education from the frequently 
incompetent local Councils to the State ; (4) enlargement 
of the functions of the Supreme Court in dealing with ad- 
ministrative abuses ; and (5) the already mentioned reduction 
in the number of Deputies necessary to form a parliamentary 
quorum, and removal of the restrictions with regard to 
residence and age formerly applying to political candidates. 
Changes in legal procedure, greatly facilitating and expediting 
the business of the Courts, have also been put into operation. 
For purposes of revenue, an Income tax and a tax on arable 
land have been levied, the former, I believe, not yet effective, 
and the latter, which abolishes the ancient system of tithes, 
as yet only partially enforced. Various minor enactments, 
calculated to improve the economic condition of the rural 
population especially and to facilitate the operations of Local 
Councils, must also be placed to the credit of the present 
administration. 

But more, perhaps, than for all other legislative reforms, does 
M. Venizelos deserve his country's gratitude for so courage- 
ously attacking and destroying the system of political appoint- 
ments which had previously been the bane of Greek adminis- 
tration, and at the same time establishing the correlative 
principle of removal from their posts of officials found to be 
incompetent for their duties or lax in the fulfilment of them. 
A movement had, it is true, been on foot during the previous 
decade for promoting the establishment of a permanent 

Civil Service, and it had been proposed to 
g ® Civil convene a National Assembly for making 

the requisite changes in the Constitution. 
I Rival political interests, however, stood in the way of these 
proposed measures, desirable though they were on all hands 
acknowledged to be ; and it was left to M. Venizelos to deal 
with the evil, his overwhelming majority in the Chamber 
greatly facilitating the task. Under the old system, which 
^nds its counterpart in the Transatlantic Repubhcs, every 



20 Greece of the Hellenes 

Civil Servant, every official paid by the State above the 
standing of an elementary school teacher — with the exception 
of Judges of the Supreme Court and University Professors — 
lived in constant apprehension of losing his post by the fall 
of the Ministry under which he had obtained it ; and party 
politics had consequently a much more absorbing interest 
for these employees of the State than the duties of the posts 
of which they held so insecure a tenure. All Government 
appointments are now, on the other hand, obtainable only by 
competitive examination, and promotion is no longer depend- 
ent on political influence. To each Government Department 
is attached an examining Board of seven members, three of 
whom only are officials holding appointments in such depart- 
ments, the remaining four being either University Professors 
or Judges of the High Courts. 

It is proposed, as soon as finances permit, to erect a 

Government House spacious enough to accommodate all the 

Departments of State, the business of which 

^^Yff"'"®"* is now carried on in separate buildings, the 
Foreign Office being located in a handsome 
house in the " Street of the Philhellenes." The Ministry 
of the Interior, housed in the Odos Dragazaniou, formerly 
included Agriculture and National Economy ; but these 
were, in January, 1911, formed into a separate Ministry with 
offices in " Stadium Street." The Portfolio of War is, in the 
present Government, held by the Prime Minister. Each 
department is divided into several sections, the War Office 
having a very large personnel ; while the Admiralty has seven 
different sections, the whole of the naval construction being 
conducted from this department, together with the Arsenal, 
lighthouse and beacon regulations, and all such matters as, 
with us, fall within the province of Trinity House. 

The working day of Greek Government officials is not only 
much longer than is usual in more western lands, but their 
work is also more assiduously performed. Subordinates are 
at their desks at 9 a.m., and by 10 a.m. the departmental 



Government 21 

heads of sections will also have arrived. Ministers and vSecre- 
taries are to be found in their offices at an early hour, remaining 

until noon — the established luncheon hour in 
hSit?' *^^ country — and returning at 3 p.m. 

for another five hours or even more of 
strenuous work. At times of exceptional pressure the day's 
work of a government department may, indeed, not be com- 
pleted before midnight ; but in such offices, as also in the 
Banks, no " overtime " pay is accorded, or even expected. For, 
it may be here remarked, none of the questions with regard 
to restriction of the hours of labour and a " minimum wage " 
have as yet, in Greece, disturbed the relations between 
employer and employed. And whatever may have been the 
shortcomings in the past of Greek administrators, it may with 
truth be said that of all the various politicians who have 
from time to time held office not one has ever been accused 
of enriching himself at the expense of the State. And in 
view of the inadequacy of the emoluments of Hellenic Cabinet 
Ministers, this is a record of which any nation might justly 
be proud. 

Among the leading politicians of the present day may be 
mentioned, in addition to M. Venizelos, the well-known names 

of MM. MavromichaHs, RaUis, Koromilas, 
Leading Gounaris, Dragoumis, Theotokes and Zaimes. 

M. Kyriakoules Mavromichalis, who held 
the portfolio for war in 1909-10, is the chief of the famous 
Mainote clan of that name, his ancestors having been hered- 
itary Beys during the Turkish domination. A man of 
wide culture and charming manners, wealthy and hospitable, 
he represents a party of considerable political strength, not 
so powerful as formerly, perhaps, but still a party to be 
reckoned with. He is said to be the only rich Greek of ancient 
Hellenic lineage, though his wealth is not derived from his 
ancestral estates in Maina, but from his mother, a Soutzo, 
who inherited large landed property in Roumania. His 
fine mansion at Athens contains an interesting collection 



22 Greece of the Hellenes 

of portraits of bygone Mavromichalis, the originals of which 
figured prominently in the modem annals of the country — old 
Petro Bey, for instance, with the brothers who, at Naupha, 
shot John Capo d'Istria, first President of the Greek Republic, 
and paid the penalty of their crime on the scaffold ; portraits, 
too, of the First Napoleon, whom the Mainotes claim to have 
been of their blood. 

M. Demetrios Rallis, a member of the Chiote family so 
well known in commercial circles outside Greece, has repre- 
sented a constituency in Attica during more 
^' p®j^-®*'^*°^ than a quarter of a century, and has also 
on one important occasion been at the head 
of the Government of his country. A statesman of con- 
spicuous ability, distinguished in manner and courteous in 
bearing, a hard worker and voluminous writer, his many high 
qualities are generally recognised and admitted by all with 
whom he comes into personal contact, not excepting his most 
bitter political opponents. 

The veteran M. George Theotokes, a favourite Minister of 
the late King of the Hellenes, and leader of the remnant 
of the political party created by the late 
Theot6k^^ eminent statesman, M. Trikoupis, belongs 
to a good old Corfiote family, is a man of 
distinguished appearance and courtly manners, and has 
repeatedly been at the head of the Government. The voters 
of Corfu have always been most loyal to their eminent com- 
patriot ; yet even his popularity was eclipsed by that of M. 
Venizelos who, when landing there to visit his King and the 
Kaiser, appears to have received a more enthusiastic reception 
than had ever been accorded to their local political representa- 
tive. M. Theotokes, who has served the State all his life in 
some capacity or other, has passed through stormy times. He 
was the first Ionian to become Prime Minister, and held office 
on three different occasions, once for a period of three years — 
an unusually long fife for a Greek Ministry — and once for a 
fortnight only ; and though times have changed and his 




M. GEORGE THEOTOKES 

Ex-President of the Greek Chamber 



Government 23 

countrymen have withdrawn from him their political support, 
he will ever command their respect, and their gratitude 
for his past services to the State. 

M. Lambros Koromil^s, the present Minister for Foreign 

Affairs, is a man of remarkable attainments and great ability. 

After taking high degrees at the University 

^'oJjmiiir^ of Tubingen (Wiirtemberg), and the " Ecole 
Libre de Sciences Politiques " of Paris, he 
travelled in Western Europe and the United States for the 
purpose of stud5nng their several financial and economic 
systems. Entering the diplomatic service, he occupied in 
turn the important posts of Consul-General at Salonica and 
Minister Plenipotentiary at Washington. Returning from 
the United States in 1910 he was offered by the King the 
portfoHo of Finance in the newly formed V6nizelos Cabinet 
which he retained until the reconstruction of the Cabinet in 
1912, when he resumed his diplomatic functions by taking 
charge of the Greek Foreign Office. Much of the subsequent 
success of M. V6nizelos' administration has been attributed 
to the able management of the country's finances and economic 
resources by M. Koromilas between 1910 and 1912. 

M. Stephanos Dragoumis, now Greek Governor-General 

of Macedonia, may be considered one of the most distinguished 

among modern Hellenes. Though a Macedo- 

M. Stephanos j^j ^ birth, and consequently without 
local family mfluence, when contestmg a 
constituency in Attica in 1905 he was returned at the head 
of the poll ; and while still a simple Deputy, and independently 
of any political party, he succeeded in bringing into effect 
a scheme for granting lands to the numerous peasant families, 
both natives of Greece and Greek refugees from different 
parts of the Balkan Peninsula, whom political events had 
deprived of their all and rendered homeless. An accomplished 
orator, the efforts of M. Dragoumis in the Chamber were also 
largely directed towards reconciliation between the then 
troublesome " Military League " and the Royal Family, as 



24 Greece of the Hellenes 

well as between the various political parties ; he aimed also 
at general reform, including such revision of the Constitution 
as has since been effected. An able and forceful writer, M. 
Dragoiimis had temporarily retired from the political arena, 
devoting himself assiduously to literary work until the 
circumstances resulting from the outbreak of the Balkan war 
summoned him again to public life. 

M, Alexander Zaimes, the son of a former Prime 
Minister, has himself twice been, nominally at least, leader of 

the Chamber, and though a nephew of the late 
M. Alexander M. DeHyannis, was invariably an ally of his 

great rival M, Theotokes. Latterly, how- 
ever, he has supported the reforming efforts of M. Venizelos. 
Coming as he does of an ancient and honourable stock — 
the name Zaimes denotes that the family held in bygone 
days a zaim, or fief, during the Ottoman occupation — he has a 
considerable following in his native town of Kalyvryta ; for 
even in democratic Greece a member of an old-established 
family is preferred to a parvenu ; and M. Zaimes is generally 
considered to be a man with a distinguished political career 
before him. On the retirement of Prince George from the 
High Commissionership of Crete, M. Zaimes was appointed 
by the King to succeed his son, and, during his term of office 
appears to have been fairly successful in the extremely 
difficult position of administrator of that turbulent island. 
A man of ample means and scholarly tastes, and actively 
interested in educational progress, he is at the same time 
of a retiring disposition, speaks little in public, refuses to be 
interviewed, and when not actively serving his country, 
divides his time between study and the pastime of fishing. 
For political and administrative purposes Greece is divided 
into Nomoi, or prefectures. Originally eleven in number, 

the Nomoi had, for party purposes, been 
^°"orGr°S!''"' gradually increased to twenty-six, thus 

entailing great additional expense to the 
State. Under the present Government, however, they 



Government 25 

have been again reduced, and are now sixteen in number 

of which three are in Continental Greece, five in the 

Peloponnesos, two in Thessaly, one in Epeiros, three in the 

Ionian Islands, and two in the Archipelago, thus comprising 

the additional territory acquired by Greece before the 

late war. This sweeping reduction in the number of 

administrative divisions may be considered one of the most 

important of the many recent reforms. 

At the head of each prefecture is the Nomarch, an official 

invested with no little authority, representing as he does 

every department of State in proportion 

., „ ^"® , , , to its relations with the Nomos he adminis- 
Nomarch. 

trates. Appointed by the King on the 

recommendation of the Minister of the Interior, the powers 
he exercises are regulated by a special enactment dating from 
the year 1845 which is still regarded as " a model of what 
a Law should be." The duties of a Nomarch are consequently 
multifarious. Not only is he responsible for public order 
and security, for the public health, for the proper administra- 
tion of prisons and hospitals, asylums and other philanthropic 
institutions, but also for the maintenance of public buildings, 
highways, bridges, the preservation of archaeological treasures 
discovered in his district, the administration of ecclesiastical 
property, and the enforcement of the Education Act. The 
improvement of Agriculture, the drainage of the marshlands 
and reafforestation of the hills are likewise among the duties 
of a Nomarch, as are also the regulation of the annual levy 
of youths for military service, the collection of rates and taxes, 
and the superintendence of the administration of public 
funds in the various municipal districts comprised within his 
prefecture. The salary of such an official hardly exceeds, 
however, including allowances, the modest sum of £300 per 
annum. 

The Demes, or municipal districts into which a Nomos 
is divided, are arranged in three classes according to their 
respective populations, a Deme consisting of one town, or 



26 Greece of the Hellenes 

large village, or, in the rural localities, of from fifteen to 
twenty hamlets. A municipal Council of the first class will 
consist of eighteen Councillors and six deputies ; 
D^to^te^^ of twelve Councillors and four deputies in the 
second class ; and in the third, of eight 
Councillors and two deputies. Elections are held every 
four years, as for the Chamber, in the month of September, 
and, under the old system of political patronage, were 
invariably fought on party lines. Each candidate for office 
is required on nomination to deposit 25 drachma =:£!, with 
the returning officer as his contribution to election expenses. 
The polling stations, which are usually churches or school- 
rooms, are open from dawn to sunset, this time being extended, 
if the candidates are numerous, for an hour or two in the 
evening. " One man one vote " is the rule at all elections 
in Greece, every male inhabitant who has completed his 
twenty-first year and performed his military service, or 
obtained exemption therefrom, possessing the suffrage both 
municipal or political, illiteracy, which is every year becoming 
rarer, being at present no bar. 

The method of voting in use is that instituted by the 
British in the Ionian Islands. Each candidate has his own 
ballot-box surmounted by his photograph, 
BH^ t ^^^ may, if he pleases, preside over it per- 

sonally. As each elector advances to the 
ballot boxes, his name is caUed out by an official and checked 
on the list of those entitled to vote. Two pellets of buck- 
shot are then handed to him which he drops into one or other 
of the two compartments labelled respectively " Yes " and 
" No," the former being painted white and the other black. 
The shot fall into canvas bags which are subsequently emptied 
into receptacles holding exactly 500 pellets each, these being 
subsequently counted by a committee of six persons. 

At the head of each Deme is the Demarchos, or Mayor, who 
is elected by public suffrage at the same time as the Council. 
He receives a small salary, and may, hke the Councillors, be 



Government 27 

represented on occasion by his 'TiroTrpoiSpo';, or Vice-demarch, 
but is ineligible for the Chamber of Deputies during his term of 

ofl&ce. In the remoter islands, cut off by lack 
, ^® ,, of telegraphic and steam communication 

from the central government, the Demarch 
is often a more important official within his jurisdiction than 
the Prime Minister of the day, and his duties will probably 
be as numerous and varied as those of his above described 
superior, the Nomarch. The Demarch is, inter alia, Chairman 
of the Ecclesiastical Commission dealing with the churches 
in his Deme ; Chairman also of the local Educational Council ; 
he is held responsible for public works, for the proper manage- 
ment of the prisons, hospitals, and other public institutions 
in his district ; and for hghting and scavenging. The pro- 
vision of hospitality to strangers fall also within his province ; 
and he may not, should he desire re-election, refuse to stand 
sponsor at the font for the child of any supporter who may 
ask this favour of him. 

The chief local rate levied by these Communal Councils 
is a 2 per cent, octroi on all articles introduced into the Deme, 
irrespective of whether such articles have been produced 
within the limits of the Hellenic Kingdom or imported from 
abroad. This duty works out at a much higher figure in urban 
than in rural districts, where all, or very nearly all, the 
requirements of the peasants are, as a rule, produced and 
manufactured by themselves. District Councils are also 
empowered to raise loans for local needs with the consent of 
the Demarch, and, in the event of his refusing such consent, 
the Councillors have a right of appeal to the Ministry of the 
Interior. 

The Demarch of Athens may be said to occupy a position 
somewhat similar to that of the Lord Mayor of London, as the 

Deme under his authority constitutes not 

^?^Atti^^°% only the capital of Greece but also the focus 

* ' of Hellenism and resort of the whole cultured 

world. Athens is also the only Greek municipality which 



28 Greece of the Hellenes 

provides for its leading citizen an equipage and an allowance 
towards the expenses of public entertainments. One of the 
most able and popular Athenian Lord Mayors of recent 
times has been M. Spiros Merkouris who, during his term of 
office, has succeeded in bringing about many important and 
necessary municipal reforms. Among these may be named 
the substitution of a system of direct collection of rates for the 
old unsatisfactory practice of tax-farming ; the conversion 
of the municipal debt ; the introduction of a new system of 
registration of births, marriages and deaths within the Deme ; 
the erection of a market-hall ; and the improvement of the 
municipal roads and thoroughfares. 

In rural districts the Demarch is not infrequently found 
to be a well-to-do peasant farmer in blue-tasselled fez and 
white fustanella, who adds to his municipal duties that of 
providing under his own roof, or elsewhere, when no decent 
inn is available, accommodation for the passing traveller or 
government official on tour. To the former he will also 
courteously do the honours of his Deme, introducing him to 
the leading inhabitants, and acting as his guide to the places 
of interest in the neighbourhood, including the local museum, 
of which he will probably be the curator. 

Local self-government, it may be remarked, is no new 
institution in Greece, though the form of it may have changed 
somewhat since the creation of the Hellenic Kingdom. The 
system of Communal administration which the successive 
conquerors of the country found in operation was never 
seriously interfered with by them, even the Turks having 
refrained from interference with the municipal liberties of 
the subject nationalities. A considerable amount of ad- 
ministrative experience was, consequently, on the creation 
of the Hellenic Kingdom, at the service of the new 
Constitutional Government. 



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M. SPIROS MERKOURIS 
Mayor of Athens 



CHAPTER III 

ARMY, NAVY AND POLICE 

Although a regular army was organised on a small scale 
on the creation of the Greek Kingdom under Otho I in 1833, 
Greece was so fortunate as to enjoy in peace 
Army ^^j. ^ period of sixty years the liberty she 

had so dearly purchased ; and it was not 
until 1897 that her forces were called upon to show their 
mettle in the field. The Turco-Greek war of that year making 
apparent such glaring defects in every department of the 
army, its reform thenceforward became the unanimous 
demand of every political party. Not immediately, however, 
were these reforms seriously undertaken, Greece has not 
lacked a party corresponding to our own " Little Englanders " 
which, holding the three " Protecting Powers " responsible 
for its security against external aggression, has ever opposed 
the creation of an expensive standing army. One Ministry 
after another was formed and dissolved, many measures were 
proposed, but nothing definite was accomplished ; and it 
was not until the reins of government were placed in the hands 
of M. Venizelos that actual results were finally achieved. 
The energy and far-sightedness of this able statesman, however, 
very speedily triumphed over apparently insuperable 
difficulties ; and abundantly justified by late events has been 
the confident anticipation expressed by the President of the 
Chamber that " Whenever the Greek Army is called upon to 
take the field, it will be under such favourable auspices as 
must bring additional glory to our national banner." Nor 
was the cost of this new military force allowed unduly to bur- 
den the country. The strong financial position in which 
Greece had been placed by the administrative reforms of 
M. Koromilas already alluded to enabled the Government 

29 



30 Greece of the Hellenes 

to devote to it the sum of no less than £1,900,000; 
patriotic Greeks residing abroad have also contributed 
handsomely ; and the war fund has been further augmented 
from various other sources. 

This reorganisation of the Greek Army has been carried 
out under the direction of the " French Military Mission 

to Greece " at the head of which is General 

The French Eydoux. The scheme of reform put forward 

Missioif ^y ^^^^ distinguished officer was embodied 

in a government measure passed in 1912, 
and immediately acted upon, the conscription law already 
in force greatly facilitating the augmentation of the rank 
and file. For, with certain exceptions, every male Hellene 
between the ages of twenty-one and twenty-five, whatever 
his social position, is liable to conscription, and may at any 
time until he has attained his fifty-first year be called upon 
to defend his fatherland. Those entitled to claim exemp- 
tion fall into three classes. The first includes the clergy of 
the Orthodox Church and of every other recognised Christian 
Creed, together with students of the Rizareion and of the 
Theological faculty of the University ; Rabbis and other 
Hebrew functionaries of the Synagogues, and the Mohammedan 
clergy attached to the Mosques. The second class is com- 
posed of men who are the main, or sole, support of their 
near relations, as, for instance, an only son, or the eldest 
of a family of orphans ; an eldest son whose widowed mother 
has married again and has a second family ; the only 
or eldest son of a widow ; and the only or eldest grandson of 
a widow without surviving son or son-in-law. And, if an 
eldest son be physically unfit to earn his own living and provide 
for those dependent on him his second brother may claim 
exemption in his stead, though all who come under this 
category are required to pay a fine of from 50 to 155 drachmcB 
{£2 to £Q) in lieu of service. The physically infirm are also 
of course exempt, and a man who has been convicted of a 
criminal offence is considered morally unfit to serve in the 



Army, Navy and Police 31 

national army. After deducting all the above mentioned 
exempts there still remain some 23,000 young men annually 
available, though only a certain proportion of this number 
are usually called upon to serve with the colours. This 
question is settled by lot, those drawing low numbers entering 

the regular army, while those to whom high 
National numbers fall are passed into the territorial 
Servke^ army and pay an exemption fine of about 

£Q, part of which is refunded should they be 
subsequently called upon for active service. Under the new 
regulations from 12,000 to 13,000 recruits are annually called 
up, and after a year's training are drafted either into the 
regular army or into the gendarmerie. The term of service 
with the colours is two years, with ten in the Ephedreia, or 
Reserve, while the Ethnophroura, or National Guard, who are 
mobilised only in time of war, serve eight years, with ten in 
the Reserve. 

The height standard for the Greek Army is nominally 5 feet 
1 inch, the average Hellene being by no means a tall man. 
Nor is this low standard rigidly adhered to, for a recruit 
is not rejected on the score of height, if certified as physically 
fit in other respects. Some of the finest and hardiest soldiers 
are recruited among the Albanians and the pastoral Koutso- 
Vlachs of Thessaly, who form an important contingent ; and 
the healthiest conscripts are found, it is said, in Arcadia, those 
from the islands, strange to say, being the least physically fit 
of any. The tallest men in the army are to be found among 
the Evzonoi — Frontier Guards, or Rifles, a picked corps 
recruited chiefly from the mountainous districts of Northern 
Greece. Soldiering as a profession does not seem to appeal 
to the Hellene generally, and few of the rank and file remain 
in the army after the completion of their two years' service, 
preferring to return to their patris and resume their inter- 
rupted agricultural or commercial avocations ; and even 
of those who volunteer to remain with the colours, few stay 
long enough to become old soldiers. On the other hand, no 



32 Greece of the Hellenes 

Greek liable to military service is ever found attempting to 
shirk this first duty of a citizen. Patriotism being a 

cardinal virtue with the Hellenes, not only 
Patriotism. do residents in the Kingdom willingly present 

themselves at the appointed time and place 
in every prefecture, but scions of the " Outside Greeks " 
domiciled in the Ottoman Empire and in European countries 
come in numbers to acquire the privilege of Greek citizenship ; 
while the many sons of Hellas who have gone as boys to seek 
fortune in the far West on attaining to man's estate invariably 
return home for the same purpose. 

The nominal daily pay of a Greek private is 46 leptd, or 
about 4|d., from which is deducted thirty leptd for his food 

and one leptd for the military chest, the 

Soldiers Government's contribution to the rations 
Pay. 

of each man being 22 leptd for bread, 10 leptd 

for his other provisions, and 25 for washing. The uniforms 

now supplied by the Greek War Office to the rank and file 

generally are made of a rather heavy and serviceable khaki 

of foreign manufacture, one new outfit, which has to serve for 

all occasions, being allowed every year. Greek soldiers do not, 

therefore, as a body, present a very smart appearance, 

though they at the same time form a great contrast to 

the tatterdemalion defenders of Hellas of some forty years 

ago. The Greek soldier generally dislikes carrying his kit 

in a knapsack, preferring to bestow both it and his ammunition 

distributed about his person, and this also naturally detracts 

from the smartness of his appearance when in marching order. 

The quality of the food is said to be quite as good as that 

suppHed to the French or German soldier, and much better 

than that which an Italian coscritto thrives upon. The 

meals consist of coffee and bread for breakfast, meat or 

soup with vegetables for dinner, and bread and cheese for 

supper, special food being provided for fast days. To the 

generally abstemious Greek this fare is all that could be 

desired, being perhaps better than he has hitherto enjoyed 



Army, Navy and Police 33 

at home, while his " better class " comrade, having more 
pocket money, is easily able to supplement it at cookshop or 
restaurant. 

The fivzonoi, who receive a slightly higher pay, and still 
wear the Epirote costume which formerly constituted the 
national dress, form an infantry regiment 
A ^^® . of picturesque appearance, the members of 
which are for the most part riflemen of 
great skill and high character specially chosen by the Military 
Council from among the mountaineers accustomed to wear 
the fustanella. This corps enjoys not only a high reputation 
for valour in the field, but great prestige generally, and also 
the privilege of supplying the guard for the Royal Palaces 
at Athens. When in full dress this Royal Guard presents a 
very striking appearance. A rusthng pleated fustanella or 
kilt, over twenty yards in amplitude and of snowy whiteness, 
is girt round the Evzondki's slender waist, meeting at the 
knees his hose of white woollen gartered with black. His vest 
and zouave jacket with its wing-like hanging sleeves showing 
the wide, loose sleeves of a fine linen shirt, are elaborately 
embroidered, while round his waist is strapped an arms- 
belt of leather, wonderfully decorated, and bristling with 
pistols and other small arms. His feet are shod with Albanian 
red leather shoes the upturned, pointed toes of which are finished 
with woollen tufts ; and his costume is completed by a jaunty 
close-fitting cap with long pendant tassel of dark blue silk. 
In winter a capa, or overcoat, of blue cloth, cut with a wide 
skirt to accommodate the fustanella, protects all this mag- 
nificence from the elements. It is said that the Kaiser, 
when visiting Athens some years ago, was so impressed 
by the appearance of this regiment that he advised the late 
King of the Hellenes to convert all his troops into fivzonoi. 

All Greek soldiers are required to be able to read and 
write, and if a conscript on joining has not already acquired 
those rudiments of education, he is put to school. Not- 
withstanding the educational efforts of the Government, as 

3— (2385) 



34 Greece of the Hellenes 

many as 30 per cent, proved fifteen years or so ago to be com- 
pletely illiterate, while not more than 25 per cent, had advanced 
beyond the " three R's." This may be partly 

Army accounted for by the fact that these 

Education. . ■' 

conscripts mclude both Albanians from the 

settlements in Attica and other parts of the Kingdom and 

pastoral Koutso-Vlachs, all of whom habitually speak their 

own dialects, and learn Greek only as a foreign tongue. At 

the present day, however, owing to the greater extension of 

compulsory elementary education, nearly all the Greeks 

who have passed through the army can at least read and write 

with facility. And as the katharevousa or " pure " form of 

Greek is alone taught in the army schools, and used in all 

military orders and regulations, the national military service 

provides an additional means of propagating this academic 

form of Modern Greek. 

Considerable improvement has been made of late years in 

the accommodation provided for the troops, new barracks 

being constructed on French models, and 

B^racks and jj^^^h greater attention paid to sanitation 
than formerly. The most important military 
centres have hitherto been the Capital, in the vicinity of which 
two large new barracks have recently been erected, and the 
provincial towns of Mesolonghi, Nauplia, Livadia and Larissa. 
Salonica will also no doubt now become a military station of 
the first importance. Military hospitals, the most important 
of which are those of Athens, Corfu and Mesolonghi, are also 
being brought up to date. Previous to the war of 1897, no 
woman had ever acted as military nurse in Greece. The 
principal hospital at the capital has, however, now on its staff 
several English trained nurses, their appointment being chiefly 
due to the action of Queen Sophia who takes a personal interest 
in all that appertains to hospital work. The patients, it is 
said, greatly appreciate this innovation, though their nurses 
have some httle difficulty in inducing them to fall in with 
hospital routine as understood in this country. Young 




ONE OF THE ROYAL BODYGUARD 



Army, Navy and Police 35 

soldiers from the villages and mountains object, for instance, 
to undressing and being put to bed, preferring to wrap 
themselves up in their capas and lie down in a corner. 

The position of an officer in the Greek army is, owing to 
the democratic principle prevalent in the country and the 

absence of class distinctions, somewhat 
Officers. peculiar. For not only is a senior offiicer not 

regarded by the rank and file as their social 
superior, but he will also be judged entirely on his own merits 
as a soldier by his subordinates generally, and his juniors 
may not improbably criticise and question, instead of promptly 
carrying out, any order he may issue. The maintenance of 
discipHne is, consequently, no easy matter. Officers in the 
Greek army are also very poorly paid. Brigadier-Generals 
and Colonels receive only 560 drachmce — ^£22 8s. per month ; 
a lieutenant-colonel's pay is 480 dr. ; a major's 440 dr. ; 
a captain's from 240 to 300 dr. according to seniority ; that 
of a lieutenant 180 dr., and of a sub-lieutenant 160 dr. The 
age limit for retirement is, however, compared with that of our 
own country, unduly extended, as a colonel need not retire 
before he has reached his sixty-eighth year, while the rank of 
captain in active service may be held by a man of the ripe 
age of fifty-six. Officers of all grades, as well as the rank and 
file of the Greek army, now wear khaki on all ordinary occa- 
sions, distinctions of rank and arms being indicated only by 
badges and braiding, the brilliant uniforms formerly so much 
in evidence being now reserved for grand parades and special 
functions. 

Among military colleges, of which there are several, the 
most important is that termed the Evelpidon — the Woolwich 

of Greece — in which from fifty to sixty cadets 
Military undergo a five years' training for the army. 

Candidates for admission must have passed 
through a " Gymnasium," be able to produce a certificate 
of good conduct and application, and to undergo a not very 
severe entrance examination. The staff consists of about 



36 Greece of the Hellenes 

fourteen instructors ; the course of study lasts five years, 
and embraces a wide range of military and other subjects, 
including at least two foreign languages. On passing the 
final examination imposed by this college a cadet may enter 
any branch of the army with the rank of sub-lieutenant. 
Promising young graduates of these military colleges are also 
occasionally sent by the government to study at St. Cyr, 
Woolwich, and other famous centres of military education 
in Western Europe. 

Great attention is now given, in the Evelpidon Military 
College, to foreign languages, and especially to French and 
English, with the result that from 70 to 80 per cent, of the 
cadets, on leaving, both speak and write these languages 
with a facility that places them at once on a footing of equality 
with their fellow-students abroad. 

Aviation has also of late been occupying the attention of 
the Greek military authorities. A few young officers were at 
first sent a couple of years ago, at the sug- 
Military gestion of General Eydoux, to the French 
school of this science, this number being 
subsequently augmented by a group representing various 
ranks commissioned and non-commissioned. Greece now 
possesses her little fleet of army aeroplanes, which is continu- 
ally being added to, considerable funds having been placed 
for this purpose at the disposal of the Government by wealthy 
and patriotic Hellenes. 

A college for officers of the Reserve who have passed through 
the University of Athens was founded some time ago in the 
Island of Corfu. The course followed here is naturally 
restricted to military subjects, and lasts only twelve months. 
After passing a by no means very " stiff " examination, a 
student enters either the infantry or artillery with the rank 
of sub-Heutenant, and after a year's service in either of those 
arms is passed into the Reserve. Facilities are also provided 
in another college for the higher military education of men 
who have served their time in the ranks and desire to embrace 



Army, Navy and Police 37 

the career of arms. To qualify for a commission in either 
the infantry or cavalry a three years' course in this estabhsh- 
ment is held sufficient ; but before obtaining such a com- 
mission in either the engineers or the artillery a further two 
years' course of special study must be undertaken. 

The Hellenes, and especially those of the Isles and Coast- 
lands, being mariners born, Greece has never since its 

establishment as a Kingdom lacked the 
The Greek nucleus at least of a Navy. At the beginning 
^^^' of last century no fewer than 290 merchant 

and coasting vessels of various tonnage were found available 
for service in the War of Independence, to the success of which 
they largely contributed, their valiant and patriotic crews 
fighting with no less heroism than success against the united 
navies of Turkey and Egypt. Greece had, however, been 
for over two score years an independent kingdom before any 
attempt was made to provide her with a Navy on the model 
of those of Western Europe. Finally, in 1866, a number 
of eminent Greeks and others, among whom were several 
Philhellenes of British nationahty, having formed themselves 
into a committee styled the " Society for the Promotion of a 
National Fleet " were speedily receiving handsome contribu- 
tions from Hellenes throughout the world with the 
result that the treasury was ultimately enabled to purchase the 
corvette Admiral Miaoulis, now converted into a depot ship. 

Twelve years later (1900) a separate " Treasury of the 
National Fleet " was created at the Admiralty, to which were 

appropriated the revenues derivable from 
A Naval various sources, among the chief of which 

were harbour dues, amounting to £20,000 
yearly, and the proceeds of collections made by the 
committee, the latter including even the pence eagerly 
subscribed by children in the National Schools. The society 
now possesses property of the approximate value of 
£320,000, About ten years ago, a second State Lottery 



38 Greece of the Hellenes 

was also instituted with the same object, 1,000,000 tickets 
at 3 drachmcB (2s. 6d.) being annually issued, with 2,000 
winning numbers, and a first prize of the value of 100,000 
drachmcB, or £4,000. 

Greece now possesses a Navy composed of four armoured 
battleships, eight destroyers, five torpedo-boats, eighteen 
corvettes, and three gun-boats, the vessels now building, 
which are to be added to her naval forces either this year or 
in 1915, comprising one battleship cruiser, six torpedo boats, 
two submarines, and as many destroyers, Greece's single 
armoured battleship, the George Averoff, completed in 1910, 
is named after the patriotic Hellene whose munificence 
contributed towards its construction. In 1912 the number 
of naval officers in commission was about ninety, and of petty 
officers and men some 1,500, but these numbers would 
necessarily have been increased during the late naval opera- 
tions against Turkey. A new era in Greek 
N^al M'*' naval organisation may indeed be said to have 
been inaugurated since the arrival of Admiral 
Tufnell with the staff of the British Mission, whose knowledge 
and experience have been during the last two years at the 
service of the Greek government, important reforms having 
already been accomplished in various departments. 

As already observed, Greece possesses splendid material for 

the formation of an efficient navy in her maritime population, 

and the great majority of those who man his Hellenic Majesty's 

ships have lately given a good account of themselves in their 

encounters with the ships of the Sultan. Already more or 

less accustomed to a seafaring life, the naval recruits, after 

taking the oath of allegiance in the Arsenal at Salamis, are 

sent to the Naval School at Poros, where from 500 to 600 are 

usually in training. Here the more illiterate receive an 

elementary education, and become in course 

R rft ^^ time ordinary seamen ; while the better 

educated are trained to fill more responsible 

positions. After three months passed in this school the boys 



Army, Navy and Police 39 

are returned to the Arsenal, whence they are transferred to a 
division of the fleet about to execute manoeuvres, and subse- 
quently drafted to the ships on which they are to serve. Naval 
cadets, who must be under sixteen years of age on entering, 
have hitherto been educated, forty at a time, on board an 
ancient vessel, the Hellas, moored in the harbour at Piraeus, 
learning practical seamanship in the course of periodical 
cruises in the corvette Admiral Miaoulis. 

The pay of a Greek naval officer can hardly be said to be 
on a more munificent scale than that of his military confreres, 
a vice-admiral's emoluments amounting to less than £600 per 
annum, and a commodore's to £AAQ ; while a post-captain 
receives but a meagre monthly pay of 634 dr., a commander 
452 dr., a lieutenant 312 dr., a sub-lieutenant 220 dr., and a 
"middy" UO dr. 

'~ While the Greek Army and Navy have been respectively 
reorganised by a French and a British Mission, the creation 

of a new force of Gendarmerie has been 
The New entrusted to an ItaHan Mission composed 

of four officers, two of whom had previously 
organised the Gendarmerie of Crete. Until quite recently, 
no adequate police force has existed in Greece, and policemen 
proper were only to be met with in the capital, where they 
numbered only some 400, and in the more important 
provincial towns, this small force being under the jurisdiction 
of the Ministry of the Interior. The pohcing of the rural 
districts devolved consequently upon the soldiery, infantry- 
men being required to pass a year in this force. The regular 
police also were recruited among ex-soldiers, and being poorly 
paid, the best men were by no means attracted to this service. 
The average Greek pohceman, though as courteous and 
obliging as our own, cannot compare with him in physique, 
being usually of very mediocre stature, though no doubt 
strong and wiry, and capable of considerable endurance. 
The reforms which are being carried out by the officers of 



40 Greece of the Hellenes 

the Italian mission have, however, already placed the policing 
of the rural districts on a more satisfactory and efficient 
footing ; and service in the gendarmerie will no doubt become 
as popular in Greece as it already is in the other countries of 
South-eastern Europe and Hither Asia, in which a similar 
force has of late years been instituted. 




A CRETAN GENDARME 



CHAPTER IV 

JUSTICE 

'Greece being a kingdom of modern creation, and conse- 
quently unhampered by any existing legal code, those 
responsible for the framing of her Constitution were in a 
position to adopt or adapt from the judicial systems of other 
nations what seemed best suited to the special needs of the 
country. The Greek Civil Code, which contains 1,100 different 
articles, is in consequence based to a great extent on the 
Code Napoleon, as also on ancient Roman and modern German 
law ; while the Criminal Code is remarkably complete and 
excellent in method, affording ample provision for the 
protection of accused persons, and at the same time humane 
in its penalties. 

The Courts of Law comprise the Supreme Court of Appeal, 

with five local Courts of Appeal sitting respectively at Athens, 

Corfu, Larissa, Patras and Nauplia, and 

Courts of thirteen Courts of First Instance, one at 
Law. . , , , . . , . ' 

Athens, and the remammg twelve m as many 

of the principal towns. Below these tribunals are the 

Eirenodikeia, corresponding to our " County Courts," with 

other tribunals answering to our Police Courts. 

The staff of the High Court of Justice — ^which is still 
designated by the ancient name of Areopagus — consists of a 
President, Vice-President and sixteen other judges, together 
with the Eisangeleus, or King's Proctor and his Deputy, 
the Registrar, and fifteen Advocates or Counsel, a quorum 
consisting of seven judges, the Registrar, and the Proctor 
or his Deputy, the duty of the last named official being 
to sum up and present the case impartially to the bench after 
counsel have been heard on either side. 

The " Areopagites," as the judges of the Supreme Court are 

41 



42 Greece of the Hellenes 

termed, are selected from among the judges of the five Courts 

of Appeal, and appointed by the king after nomination by 

the Minister of Justice. In addition to its 

The Supreme functions as a civil and criminal Court 
Court of Appeal. ^ . , , . 

of Appeal the Areopagus constitutes a 

State Council whose duty it is to decide whether new 
measures passed by the Chamber of Deputies are in accord- 
ance with the Constitution or contrary to its provisions. 
The Court sits twice a week, from the middle of September 
to the middle of June, trying civil appeals on Mondays, and on 
Saturdays criminal appeals, over 400 of the former and some 
300 of the latter being usually dealt with within that period. 
By no means imposing either architecturally or forensically, 
notwithstanding its august designation, is the modem 
Areopagus. The building is quite commonplace, and neither 
judges nor counsel wear gown or head-gear to denote their 
profession, nor are the charges of the former or the pleadings 
of the latter remarkable for rhetoric. The proceedings are, 
however, expeditious, and law reports are published, as with 
us. 

The Epheteia, or local Courts of Appeal, have jurisdiction 

chiefly, though not exclusively, in civil cases, and to each 

of these forty-six judges are attached, five 

^°f ^^ ^?^^^ being necessary to a quorum in each. Each 
Prefecture has its Court of First Instance, 
corresponding to our Assize Court, these having been in the 
past no fewer than twenty-six in number ; but the adminis- 
trative divisions having lately been reduced to sixteen, a 
corresponding reduction in the number of local tribunals has 
followed. The jurisdiction of the Epheteia includes the more 
serious criminal cases ; civil cases when the amount in question 
exceeds £20 ; and commercial cases respecting claims over 
/32, the special commercial Courts having been abohshed 
towards the end of last century. When criminal cases are 
being tried in these Courts the judicial quorum is five, but 
civil cases may be tried by a bench of three judges only. 



Justice 43 

The County Courts, of which there are as many as 350, are 

presided over by a single judge who decides, in addition to 

creditors' claims, all civil cases concerning 

Polic?*Courte ^^^^ ""^^^ ^^^ ^^- (^^^) ^^ ^^^° commercial 
cases in which sums under ;^32 are involved. 
The tribunals answering to our Police Courts are of two classes 
termed respectively Plemmelodikeia and Ptaismatodikeia, 
and the justices of the peace who preside in them are under 
the jurisdiction of the particular Court of Appeal attached 
to their special district. 

Candidates for judicial posts are now required to undergo a 
series of somewhat severe examinations before appointment, 
the examiners consisting of professors in the legal Faculty of 
the University and judges of the High Court. This new 
system is said to work very satisfactorily, a notable difference 
in capacity being observable between the older and the 
younger judges, who, though often lacking experience — some 
being no more than twenty-five years of age on appointment — 
at least have a thorough knowledge of the laws they are called 
upon to administer. In common with all government 
functionaries Greek judges are very inadequately remunerated, 
the President and Vice-President of the 
Judges' Supreme Court receiving respectively but 
;f280 and ^^240 per annum, and the Eisangeleiis 
the former amount ; while his deputy, together with the 
occupants of the bench generally, enjoys the munificent 
salary of £212, the Clerk's emoluments amounting only to 
£115. The Presidents of the local Courts of Appeal are 
paid £240 a year, the other judges £195 ; while the Presidents 
of the Courts of First Instance receive £194 8s. and 
puisne judges £132. Full pensions are also granted only on 
the completion of thirty-five years service on the bench. 
The inadequacy of judicial salaries is deplored by the 
majority of thinking Greeks, and may consequently be in 
time remedied. These meagre rewards of even the most 
successful legal career do not, however, apparently diminish 



44 Greece of the Hellenes 

the number of those eager to enter the legal profession ; nor, 
happily, is a reputation for corruptibility — though not 
unknown — at all common among judges of any class. The 
legal profession has, as a matter of fact, an ever increasing 
attraction for the university student, and the supply of 
barristers annually " called " is out of all proportion to the 
demand for their services. As a natural consequence, while 
about half a score of the most eminent may make incomes 
of over £1,000 a year, many earn a bare livelihood. But, as 
in other countries, many study law without any intention of 
practising as advocates, and merely as a stepping-stone to 
other professions. 

The system of trial by jury is customary in Greece only in 
criminal cases, twelve being the number of jurors impanelled. 

This system is said to work very satisfactorily. 
Trial by j^ being a provision of the law that no 

criminal shall be tried either in the district 
in which he habitually resides or in that in which his crime 
was committed. The ends of justice cannot consequently be 
frustrated by the jury being composed of men who are parti- 
sans either of the accused or his victim, or even neighbours and 
acquaintances hable to be swayed in their finding by a variety 
of considerations. 

Prison administration constitutes one of the three main 
sections of the department presided over by the Minister 

of Justice. State prisons fall into two 

Prisons and categories — Houses of Correction and Prisons 
Prisoners. ° 

for Criminals. Of the former there are two 

in Athens, the " Ephivion " for men, and the " Syngros " 

for women, with several in the provinces, of which the chief 

are situated in the islands of .^Egina, Corfu, Zante and 

Kephallenia. The seven principal criminal prisons are 

located respectively at Palamidi, Pylos, Rhion, Amphissa, 

Ithaca, Trikkala and Zante, and in them are confined, on an 

average, some 1,500 prisoners. There are also a number 

of penal establishments for persons convicted of minor 



Justice 45 

offences, in addition to those found in all the provincial 
towns in which the Courts of First Instance, or Assize, are 
held. Considerable attention has been directed of late years 
to prison reform, the arrangements in some of the older places 
of detention being mediaeval rather than modern. New 
prisons for women and juvenile offenders have since the 
beginning of the century been provided at Athens, one of 
these, for women only, being erected in 1901 by the efforts 
of Queen Olga, and another and larger female prison with 
part of the 2,000,000 of drachmcB bequeathed for that purpose 
by the patriotic and philanthropic M. Syngrds ; while further 
prisons on the most improved models are also in course of 
construction. 

A certain number of the more ancient prisons are located 
in some of the old fortresses built centuries ago by the Frank 
conquerors of the isles and shores of Greece, and though no 
doubt greatly deficient in all that appertains to well equipped 
places of detention, present curious and interesting features. 
Among these may be noted the prison in the Castle of Corfu 
and that of Palamidi at Nauplia. The former is a relic of the 
four- century- long Venetian occupation of that island, and the 
latter was also originally of Venetian construction. This 
fortress is in the form of a pentagon and includes seven 
towers, one of which, known as Fort Michael, contains the 
prison. The visitor, after mounting what appear to him 
1,000 steps cut in the rock, is led to the rampart overlooking 
the prisoners' recreation ground which resembles somewhat the 
interior of a Martello tower. The convicts occupy their 
leisure in manufacturing different objects for sale, heads for 
walking sticks, cigarette holders, etc., most skilfully carved 
in a variety of designs, together with rosaries, eikons and other 
small portable articles likely to tempt the visitor, A purchase 
is not, however, effected without a good deal of bargaining, 
one of the prisoners being allowed to ascend and act as sales- 
man, while the prisoners below hold up little money boxes 
fixed to long poles to receive the price agreed upon or the 



46 Greece of the Hellenes 

gratuities of the charitably disposed. The number of prisoners 
incarcerated here was formerly very large. When visited by 
Mr. Miller about ten years ago they numbered 612 ; but as 
prison accommodation has since been so largely increased 
only some 120 are now to be found in this fortress- jail. The 
State allows 35 leptd — about 3d. — ^per day for the maintenance 
of each prisoner. In some prisons the inmates are required 
to perform a certain amount of manual work, but in others 
there is no compulsory labour and the prisoners are allowed 
to work, if so inclined, for their own profit. 

The Greek penal code imposes capital punishment for 
such crimes as deliberate murder and brigandage, the 

guillotine being made use of for executions, 
^p® ^1^*^ '^^^ death penalty is, however, not frequently 

carried out, the Royal clemency usually 
modifying the sentence to perpetual imprisonment. The 
most frequent offences among men are homicide and crimes 
of violence, due rather to the excitable Hellenic temperament 
than to the use of intoxicants, drunkenness not being a 
prevalent vice in any of the countries of South-eastern 
Europe ; and offences against property are, notwithstanding 
a hitherto not too efficient police force, singularly rare. The 
majority of male criminals appear to be between the ages of 
twenty and thirty, and according to prison statistics, the 
largest number of prisoners belong to the peasant and 
shepherd class — ^the least educated of the whole community, 
the prosperous provinces of Achaia and Messenia, together with 
the currant-growing Elis, contributing the largest number 
of criminals, while the poorer and more mountainous districts 
are for the most part comparatively free from crime. 

Brigandage, so far as foreigners are concerned, was 
effectually stamped out by the Greek authorities after the 

affair in 1870 which had such fatal results 
Brigandage, for two English travellers. Isolated cases, 

of which wealthy Greeks were the victims, 
have, however, since occurred, one even so recently as the 



Justice 47 

beginning of this century ; but as the captive escaped with 
his Hfe, the brigand, a certain Panopoulos, was allowed to 
escape the death penalty, and condemned only to perpetual 
imprisonment. 

The majority of women convicts are confined in the two 

above named female penitentiaries at Athens. These are 

supervised by a committee composed of ladies 

Women ^^ ^^jj ^^ ^^^^ . ^^^ ^^l the prison officials, 

with the exception of the Chaplain, a clerk, 
and a gardener, are women, a lady doctor being in charge 
of the infirmary. The crime of which women are most 
commonly convicted is murder, and murder from motives of 
jealousy, the victim being usually an unfaithful husband, 
and it appears that a very large proportion of such cases 
comes from the province of Maina, whose inhabitants, as 
already remarked, habitually take the law into their own hands. 
Of these women the great majority are illiterate. In prison, 
however, this defect is remedied, all those who cannot at 
least read and write being required to learn. Every inmate 
is also obliged to work at some handicraft, the product of 
her labour being disposed of by the authorities and half its 
monetary value deposited in the prison bank to her credit. 
From such deposits a prisoner is allowed to remit sums to 
her family, provided enough remains to pay her fare to her 
home on discharge, but no allowance is made to her personally. 
Visits are allowed twice in every week, when the women 
convicts may hold intercourse with their friends through a 
grating, but no contributions of food or wine are, under the 
new system, allowed. The prisoners are said to be, on the 
whole, very well behaved, orderly, and obedient to rules, 
those who have received life sentences appearing resigned to 
their hopeless fate. 

Notwithstanding, however, the admirable legal system of 
Greece above indicated, it is only within late years that 
justice can be said to have been administered without reproach 
within her borders, this regrettable state of affairs having been 



48 Greece of the Hellenes 

largely due to the liability of judges to removal, if not dismissal, 
with every change of Ministry. The new regime has happily 
inaugurated a fundamental change in this respect, and it 
may be confidently anticipated that the further reforms now 
about to be carried into effect wiU eventually endow the 
modern Hellenes with the blessings of a high-minded and 
incorruptible magistrature dealing out justice to rich and 
poor alike without respect of persons. 



CHAPTER V 

THE MONARCHY 

The Greeks, as a nation, are essentially democratic in their 
ideas and habits, and hereditary rank is now almost non- 
existent in the kingdom, the use of titles of 
j^ "^^^j^ nobility being exphcitly prohibited by an 
Article of the Constitution. The Monarchy, 
consequently, differs from monarchies generally, and has 
hitherto been regarded merely as a convenient political 
institution, calling for no particular display of loyalty, though 
the diplomatic advantages accruing to Greece from the 
connection of its dynasty with so many of the Royal Families 
of Europe have long been recognised by the nation. The 
late King some years ago conferred on his heir apparent the 
title of "Duke of Sparta"; but finding this supposed attempt 
to introduce a foreign aristocratic system into the State 
regarded with disfavour, he judiciously refrained from 
creating Dukedoms for his younger sons. The Crown Prince's 
new title was, indeed, never officially adopted either by the 
Chamber or the press, and he continued until his accession 
to the throne to be styled simply " Diodochos " — the 
" Successor." 

The new political situation created by the successes of 

the Hellenic army under the leadership of King Constantine, 

who, born and bred in Greece, is the first 

King Greek sovereign to profess the creed of the 

National Church, has excited in the Hellenic 

nation an extraordinary degree of loyalty not only for 

their monarch individually, but also for the dynasty 

generally. The question as to whether the King will at his 

coronation next spring be styled Constantine I or XII is being 

eagerly discussed in Athens, popular opinion leaning to the 

latter number which would imply that the new King of the 

Hellenes is the direct successor of the last Byzantine Emperor, 

49 

4— (2385) 



50 Greece of the Hellenes 

Constantine XI, slain at the taking of Constantinople in 1453. 
The King of the Hellenes is, it is reported, likely to comply 
with the wishes of his people in this respect, and already, in 
imitation of the Emperors of Byzantium, writes after his name 
the initial letter of BacnXeix;. 

Born at Athens on the 21st July, 1868, King Constantine, 
together with his brothers the Princes Nicholas, Andrew and 
Christopher, received a military education. Having devoted 
more than the usual number of years and the average amount 
of application to military studies, he has long been credited 
with an exceptional knowledge of military matters, and while 
Crown Prince, held the position of Honorary Commandant 
of the Infantry Regiments and Inspector-General of the 
forces, the latter being a post of somewhat recent creation. 
His position as General Administrator of the army was, 
however, during the years immediately following the disas- 
trous war with Turkey in 1897, rendered one of extreme 
difficulty by the personal attacks made against him both in 
the Press and the Chamber of Deputies, the major part of 
the blame for the disasters of that campaign being unjustly 
directed towards him. The slanders then spread against the 
Crown Prince having, however, been subsequently recognised 
as baseless, he speedily regained his former popularity, and 
for some years past has been idolised equally by the people 
and the army, being invariably hailed on the occasion of 
his every public appearance with demonstrations of the 
utmost loyalty and affection. 

This change in the popular attitude towards the Prince was 
the more remarkable, seeing that the Greeks are not as a 
nation addicted to displays of enthusiasm with regard to royal 
personages generally, whether native or foreign.^ An alleged 

1 It is said that the Kaiser, during his first visit to Athens, expressed 
surprise at the little attention accorded him while driving through 
the streets of the capital. His fears that he had in some way offended 
the Greeks were, however, set at rest on being informed that it was 
usual for the Royal Family to pass among their people almost 
unnoticed. 




HIS MAJESTY THE KING OF THE HELLENES 



The Monarchy 51 

mediaeval prophecy to the effect that the City of Constanti- 
nople will be wrested from the Turks and again become 
Greek when a King Constantine, wedded to a Queen Sophia, 
shaU sit on the throne of Hellas has, during the course of the 
recent war, had a great vogue among the Greek populace ; 
and this tradition, combined with the able and successful 
generalship of the Crown Prince in the conduct of the war, 
tended greatly to increase the popular enthusiasm for his 
person when suddenly raised to the throne by the act of an 
assassin. 

One good result of King Constantine's position as Com- 
mander-in-Chief while heir apparent has been that it was 
part of his official duty periodically to inspect the various 
mihtary stations distributed throughout the kingdom, and 
he has thus visited and become acquainted with every part 
of the country, a duty which, it may be observed, was un- 
fortunately almost entirely neglected by the late King George. 
King George was, however, considered by his people to be 
their best ambassador in Europe ; and during his frequent 
absences from his kingdom for reasons both of health and 
diplomacy the heir apparent usually acted as Regent, though 
he appears to have refrained as much as possible from making 
use of the powers with which he was temporarily invested. 
King Constantine has also frequently visited the Courts of 
western Europe as the guest of one or other of his royal 
kinsmen ; and he a year or two ago paid a series of official 
visits to the Sultan of Turkey and the sovereigns of the 
neighbouring Balkan States, in the course of v/hich his sjnn- 
pathetic character and great personal charm gained for him 
wide popularity as well in military as in political circles. 
Queen Sophia, who was wedded to the King of the Hellenes 
in 1889, is a sister of the Kaiser, and has been ever since 

her arrival in Greece the most popular and 
Queen -j^^^^ beloved lady in the Kingdom. The 

Royal couple have five children, the Crown 
Prince George, born in 1890, the Princes Alexander and Paul, 



52 Greece of the Hellenes 

and the Princesses Helen and Irene. Within two years 
of her marriage Queen Sophia renounced the Protestant 
faith and formally declared herself a membei of the Orthodox 
Greek Church, a step which, though it still further endeared 
her to the Hellenic nation, caused an estrangement of some 
years duration with her Imperial brother. The Queen is 
a woman of great ability, and the active interest always 
taken by her while Crown Princess in every new scheme 
for promoting the welfare of her adopted country led to 
the entertainment of lively hopes of her future usefulness 
when its sphere should be enlarged. Kind, gracious, and 
tactful, she is able to maintain an attitude of considerable 
dignity in her intercourse with all classes of the population 
without at all offending their democratic prejudices. During 
the disastrous war with Turkey in 1897, the Queen used 
her utmost endeavours with the Kaiser on behalf of the 
Greeks, towards whom his attitude, together with that of 
his ministers, had been, to say the least, in the last degree 
unsympathetic. In every movement organised for the 
betterment of the country generally she has invariably taken 
a prominent part ; and to her intelligent initiative, or active 
co-operation, the progress made in the reafforestation of 
Greece, the spread of education, the improvement in hospital 
organisation, and the foundation of many charitable and 
philanthropic institutions are in great measure due. 

The widowed Queen Olga has also, ever since her arrival in 
the country in 1867 as the bride of King George, invariably 

shown herself to be a kind-hearted, benevolent 
Queen woman, ever ready and anxious to help in the 

relief of distress and suffering, qualities which 
could not fail to endear her to a certain section at least of the 
people. Unlike Queen Sophia, however, she has never been 
able to identify herself with her adopted country, having 
always remained at heart a Russian. Nor has she, as a rule, 
taken pains to disguise this partiahty for the land of her 
birth, her action on certain occasions having, unfortunately, 




HER MAJESTY QUEEN SOPHIA 



The Monarchy 53 

caused extreme provocation to the more Chauvinistic section 

of the Hellenes. 

Of the four brothers of the King, the eldest, Prince George, 

who was born at Corfu in 1869, and married in 1902 the 

Princess Marie Buonaparte, holds the honorary 

^^^ !5*"^'^ rank of Vice- Admiral in the Greek navy. 
Brothers. , . , . ., ., . . ,, . 

together with a similar position m the navies 

of Russia and Denmark. After commanding in 1897 a 

torpedo flotilla operating in Cretan waters, this Prince was 

in the following year appointed to the Governorship of Crete ; 

but after six stormy years in that island he retired into private 

life. It is, however, hoped that in the new conditions created 

by the successful issue for Greece of the late war, Prince 

George may find it possible again to serve his country either 

in his former position in Crete where, it is said, he would be 

warmly received, or in some other capacity. 

Prince Nicholas, who is three years younger, and is acting at 
present as Governor of Salonica, had previously held the 
appointments of Inspector of Artillery and Aide-de-Camp to 
his late father. His wife is the Grand Duchess Helene 
Vladomirovna of Russia, and they have three little daughters 
under ten years of age. Prince Nicholas is credited with 
literary and artistic tastes and a certain talent for dramatic 
writing. He is also an enthusiastic tennis player, and when 
not occupied with more strenuous duties, as at present, is a 
frequent figure in the courts situated below the Temple of the 
Olympian Zeus. The Princess was a great heiress, and the 
establishment of this royal couple at Athens consequently 
displays a certain degree of splendour in its appointments, 
the entertainments there given maintaining the traditions of 
hospitahty for which the Princess's fatherland is justly 
renowned. 

Prince Andrew, who is now thirty-one years of age, is an 
officer of cavalry, and also holds honorary rank in the 
Guards of the Grand Duke of Hesse, with whose family he 
is closely connected by his marriage with Princess Alice, a 



54 Greece of the Hellenes 

great granddaughter of the late Queen Victoria, and daughter 
of Prince Louis of Battenberg. This fourth son of King 
George I overtops, physically, all his brothers and most 
of his fellow Hellenes, as he measures no less than 6 feet 
3 inches in height. He is also considered very good-looking 
and, together with his wife, is most deservedly popular. The 
Princess Alike, as the Greeks call her, had acquired the 
Neo-Hellenic tongue before her arrival in the country, and 
has ever since thoroughly identified herself with the nation 
among whom she has made her home, being always ready to 
give not only her patronage but her practical support to every 
benevolent undertaking brought to her notice ; and there are 
also few social or literary movements with which her name 
is not associated. 

Prince Christopher, who is a frequent and welcome visitor 

to this country, also holds a commission in the Greek army. 

Of the two sisters of the King, the elder, 

^^|. ^^"S's Princess Alexandra, died in 1901, a few years 
after her marriage to a Russian Grand Duke 
by whom she had a son and daughter. She was greatly 
beloved and sincerely regretted by her father's subjects who 
were wont to describe her as " a real Greek Princess." The 
second sister, Princess Marie, is the wife of the Grand Duke 
George of Russia, and with her two children resides chiefly 
in that country. 

The King's Civil List of ^^45,000 is a fairly handsome one 

considering the size of the country, the few expenses attached 

to his position, and that in addition to this 

C'^"i i/^t'^ sum he receives an annual grant of £4,000 

from each of the three " Protecting Powers " 

— Great Britain, France, and Germany who undertook, in 

accordance with the Treaties of 1863 and 1864, to hand over 

this sum out of the annual amounts payable by the Greek 

Treasury for advances made to it. And as the late King 

was a -good man of business and in a position to command 

sound financial advice, he found himself able during his reign 




H.R.H. THE CROWN PRINCE OF GREECE 



The Monarchy 55 

of nearly half a century considerably to increase his private 
fortune by judicious speculations and investments. With the 
exception, however, of the Crown Prince, who enjoys an allow- 
ance of ;^8,000 per annum, no separate provision is made for 
the rest of the Royal family, though the question of grants 
to the Princes Nicholas and Andrew has already been mooted 
in the Chamber. This is a question which may, however, 
be expected to assume greater proportions with the numerical 
increase of the Royal family of Greece, and more especially 
if the holding of important Civil and Military posts by its 
members continues to be unfavourably viewed by the nation. 
The Royal Palace at Athens is well situated, overlooking 
the spacious " Constitution Square," which, with its fine 

hotels and numerous cafes, forms the centre 
^Palac?*^ of outdoor hfe in the capital. Being the 

property of the State whose representatives 
are apt to keep the public purse-strings somewhat tightly 
drawn, the Palace is not always kept in such good repair 
either within or without as might be desired by its occupants. 
Built by King Otho about 1835, in true Bavarian style, of 
limestone and Pentelicon marble, the Palace forms almost a 
square, its walls pierced with a plethora of windows and a 
modicum of doors which give to the fagade an appearance 
neither artistic nor pleasing. The beautiful gardens which 
surround the edifice atone, however, in some measure for its 
unattractiveness. Originally laid out under the super- 
intendence of Queen Amalia, the Consort of King Otho, to 
whom the Capital owes not a few of its most pleasing features, 
the palace gardens now contain avenues of lofty trees affording 
cool and shady walks, flanked by flower beds, bosky groves 
and shrubberies gay with the variety of flowering plants 
indigenous to the soil of Hellas, and are generously thrown 
open to the public at certain hours. A handsome mansion 
situated in the Boulevard d'Herode, in the vicinity of the 
Royal Palace, constituted the town residence of the King 
while Crown Prince. 



56 Greece of the Hellenes 

King Constantine purchased some years ago the fine estate 
of Manolada, situated in the currant-growing districts lying 
between the towns of Patras and Pyxgos, and containing 
also valuable oak forests. The Royal Family also possess, 
in addition to a villa at Corfu, the country mansion amid the 
vineyards of Tatoi in which the late King invested part of his 
capital. The wines from these vineyards are much esteemed, 
as are also the butter and milk, etc., supplied by the model 
dairies on this royal demesne. 

The Households of the King and Queen are organised 
on an extremely modest scale, the officials of the former 

being very few in number, and the entourage 
The Roy^l of the Queen comprising only one Lady 

of the Bedchamber, four maids of Honour, 
and a Chamberlain. And though these ladies and gentlemen 
form a class apart from the politicians and are occasionally 
the recipients of polite attention from foreign sovereigns, 
they are accorded no special status by the nation. With 
their attendants generally of every degree the Royal Family 
are exceedingly popular, and appear to possess the gift of 
securing the faithful service of those by whom they are 
surrounded in their daily home Hfe. 

The Court has hitherto entertained httle, resembling in 
this respect rather that of a small German State than of a 

kingdom ; nor are any important changes 
Court jjj ^jjjg respect at present to Jje looked for. 

As a rule, only one important Palace function 
is held annually, this being the State Ball on the morrow of 
the Greek New Year, to which about 1,200 guests are bidden. 
Comparatively few ladies belonging to the military and 
pohtical circles of the capital avail themselves, however, of 
the invitation. For the crowds of men with whom the great 
ball-room is filled to repletion make dancing an impossibility 
for the general company, and as no other opportunity is hkely 
to occur during the year for wearing a second time the ex- 
pensive court dress obligatory on this occasion, few Greek 



The Monarchy 57 

ladies avail themselves of the privilege of being present. The 
majority of those who gather at one side of the ball-room 
to be presented to the Queen belong consequently either to 
the few wealthy Greek families resident in the Capital, 
the Diplomatic Corps, or the small foreign colony. The 
mascuhne section of the assemblage consists for the most 
part of uniformed officers, naval and military, and 
" decorated " civilians wearing ordinary dress clothes ; and 
the only picturesque feature throughout the function is sup- 
phed by the detachment of Evzonoi, or riflemen, who, wearing 
their striking costume already described, stand on such occa- 
sions in double hne at the entrance of the Palace. The 
members of the Greek royal family generally appear to care 
httle for pomp and ceremony, and take after their Romanoff 
forebears in their fondness for romping and such Hke uncon- 
ventionalities. The princes and princesses are fairly frequent 
guests at the houses of wealthy Athenians and foreign residents, 
and may be met with every day walking, riding, or driving 
in the streets of Athens. 

Titles of nobihty being, as above remarked, legally tabooed 
in Greece, there exists consequently between the throne 
and the nation generally no intermediate 
Absence of aristocratic class, the old Athenian famihes, 
ns ocracy. ^^^ members of which were designated 
by the classic term of Archontes,'^ and who constituted in 
bygone times a sort of hereditary noblesse, being now almost 
extinct. Representatives may, indeed, still be found of a 
few of these old Athenian families, possessing pedigrees of 
more than respectable length. The family of Chalkokondyles 
lays claim to descent from the historian of that name ; and the 
family of the Venizeloi, who are reputed to have been of 
Venetian origin, may claim the honour of having kept learning 
aUve at Athens during the Ottoman domination. Repre- 
sentatives are also to be found in the Qreek capital of certain 

1 This term occurs frequently with its old signification in popular 
ballads and in the Festival Songs described on page 160. 



58 Greece of the Hellenes 

old Phanariot^ Greek families, a certain number of whom, 
being despoiled by the Turkish government of their possessions 
at Constantinople at the time of the War of Independence, 
took refuge in Greece. The Latin lords who so long held 
sway in the Greek islands, where many of their ruined fortresses 
may still be seen, were termed Archontes. Venetian, Genoese, 
and Spanish surnames are likewise fairly numerous in the 
islands — Foscolos, Vitalis, and Crispis, Leones, Delendas 
and Vallis ; and disguised under its Greek form of 
Dekigallas — the noble Spanish name of De Cigalla. Illustrious 
Byzantine names also have survived — Palseologos, and 
Comnena and Laskaris, the last being not uncommon. 

Among the mass of the people, however, surnames seem 
hardly to have existed before the liberation of Greece from 

Ottoman domination, and modern patronym- 

Modern ics have been created by various methods. 

Surnames Families settling in new localities would 

frequently be designated by their patns, 
or place of origin, in its adjectival form. Trades, also, as with 
us, have furnished many surnames. The direct forefather 
of a modern Metaxas will have followed the calling of a 
weaver of silk ; and a blacksmith progenitor has supplied 
the Petalas with their surname. A considerable number 
have originated in Christian names to which have been 
added the terminations opoulos, ides, akes, or akos, which 
are equivalent to the Enghsh " son," the first being 
characteristic of the Peloponnesos, the second of Crete, the 
third of Maina, while the fourth is more or less general. 

The Turkish prefix Hadji denotes that a forebear has made 
the pilgrimage to Jerusalem ; that of Pappa, combined with 
a Christian name and the termination of opoulos, proclaims 
descent from a parish priest ; while not a few heads of families 

''■ The " Phanariots " are descendants of the Byzantine Greek 
community who, after the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, were 
settled by Sultan Mahommed I in the quarter of the capital termed the 
Phanar, or " Beacon," situated on the southern shore of the Golden 
Horn. 



The Monarchy 59 

have bequeathed to their descendants the Greek or Turkish 
soubriquets acquired in consequence of some physical defect 
or pecuHarity. Karatheodory, for instance, signifies " Black 
Theodore,"^ Mavromichalis, "Black Michael," Deliyanni, 
" Mad Johnny," Kambouroglou, " The Lame Man's Son," 
and so on. Diminutives of Christian names, for the formation 
of which the Greek language possesses a curious facility, 
have also been made considerable use of in the coining by the 
people of patron5niiics, masculine diminutives being usually 
formed by the addition of aki. In common parlance, however, 
baptismal names are still much more generally used than 
surnames, and one may, for instance, hear the house of a 
wealthy man familiarly referred to — ^but without any 
disrespectful intention — as " Jack's House." 

^ The Turkish Kara, and Greek Mivro, though meaning literally 
" black," when coupled with proper names usually denote some moral 
quality and signify " brave," " famous," " notorious," etc. The city 
of Bucharest is, in one folk-ballad, alluded to as Mdvro Bucharisti. 



CHAPTER VI 

EDUCATION 

Enthusiasm for learning would appear to be quite as 
characteristic of the modern as it was of the ancient Hellenes. 
Alike under Slav and Venetian rule and during the dark days 
of Ottoman domination a continued effort was made to keep 
alive learning among the nation generally; and on the final 
expulsion of the Turks the establishment of an adequate 
national system of education was one of the first cares of the 
new Government. Notwithstanding the financial difficulties 
with which the State has had to contend, its educational 
system has been gradually developed and extended until 
the Greeks can now claim to be, with one exception, the 
most highly educated nation in Europe. 

In organisation the Hellenic system of education now 

established resembles that of Germany, on which it was 

_- chiefly modelled, and is controlled, in common 

Educational with Ecclesiastical affairs, by the Ministry 
System of of Public Instruction, which recognises three 
Greece. classes of public schools — (1) The Deme, or 
primary schools ; (2) " Hellenic " schools, and (3) " Gymnasia," 
the courses of instruction in all of which form one single series. 
There are now in the Greek kingdom over 1,400 primary 
schools for boys, and 400 for girls, together with nearly 900 
rural schools for young children of both sexes, funds for 
the maintenance of which are obtained by three different 
methods. In Athens and some other large towns the Deme 
schools are, for instance, supported entirely from the municipal 
chest ; in other less wealthy municipalities, the expense is 
shared by the State ; while in the poorest class of Demes 
the entire support of the schools is undertaken by the State. 
The general supervision of these schools in each Prefecture 
is vested in a council composed of the bishop of the diocese, 

60 



Education 61 

the director of the local " Gymnasium " or " Hellenic " school, 
a school inspector, and two leading inhabitants one of whom 
must be either a merchant or a manufacturer and the other 
a professional man. The inspectors are almost always men, 
three ladies only being employed in this capacity in all Greece. 
Individually the Deme schools were formerly managed by 
the local council ; but this proving unsatisfactory in rural 
districts owing to the ignorance of educational requirements 
most frequently displayed by its members, the control of 
these schools has now also been centralised. 

Elementary education at a Deme school is both compulsory 
and gratuitous, parents being only required to pay for school- 
books with a nominal fee for the diploma 
State granted at the end of the course. These 

^Schooir^ Deme schools are of two grades, termed 
respectively " common " and " complete." 
In the former, which consist of only four classes, the pupils 
pass out at the end of as many years, while in the latter, 
which have the full complement of six classes, the pupils 
remain for six years. " Complete " schools exist, however, 
only in the larger towns of the kingdom. All children on 
attaining the age of six are required to enter the Deme schools 
in which they are taught, in addition to the " three R's," 
geography, ancient and modern Greek history, singing and 
drawing, the further subjects taught in the two higher classes 
of the complete schools including botany, geometry, and the 
elements of geology, the study of some of the least difficult 
classics, such as JEsop and Xenophon, being also included in 
the curriculum. 

In addition to the state-supported Deme schools there 

exist also in various parts of Greece over 200 private 

elementary schools having a total attendance 

Private of some 9,000 children. Of these nearly 

^sSooS.*^^ three-fourths are for girls; and parents 

living in the neighbourhood of any such school 

are at Uberty to send their children to it, instead of to the 



62 Greece of the Hellenes 

public school, the subjects taught being precisely the same. 
Boarders being received as well as day pupils, these private 
schools have proved a great boon to children whose families 
live in districts of " Enslaved Hellas " ^ possessing few educa- 
tional advantages ; and even in democratic Greece there are 
many parents of the wealthier class who prefer that their 
children should not mix with " the common herd." In the 
case of girls these schools no doubt offer certain advantages ; 
but the general opinion is that boys who have attended the 
public schools are better equipped for the battle of life than 
those thus privately educated. 

The " Hellenic " schools are so termed because of their 
specially classical curriculum on the analogy of the German 

Lateinschulen. Of these there are some 280, 
" Schods " '^^^^ ^^ attendance of from 18,000 to 20,000 

pupils averaging in age from twelve to fifteen 
years. At these schools attendance is voluntary ; but 
as they are state-supported, and a first-rate education 
is here obtainable for a nominal fee of 8 drachmce — 6s. 6d. 
— expense is no bar to entry. Hellenic schools consist 
of either two or three " forms," the latter being designated 
Scholarcheia, and the full course extends over three years. 
The curriculum, which is arranged by the Ministry of Edu- 
cation, provides for from twenty-seven to thirty hours of study 
a week, modern and ancient Greek occupying seven or eight 
hours ; and among the other subjects studied are mathematics, 
physical science, geography, orthography, and drawing. 
In these, as in all other State schools, Roman Catholic and 
Orthodox Greek pupils read Bible-history in class, theology 
proper being imparted to the former at home by their own 
priests, and to those of the Jewish persuasion by their own 
Rabbis. Pupils in the second class begin the study of French, 
the only modern language taught in the National schools, 
to which two hours a week are devoted, one hour only being 

1 'H Aov\7i "HA.XOS the ancient Hellenic lands still under Ottoman 
rule are thus termed by the Greeks, 



Education 63 

set apart for Latin, which it is, indeed, proposed to exclude 
altogether, its literature bein. considered as at best but an 
excellent copy of the Greek classics. Boys who have passed 
through the two highest forms of the " complete " Deme 
schools, which are considered as equivalent to the two lowest 
of a " Hellenic " school, on entering the latter usually find 
themselves placed at least in the second, if not in the 
highest form. 

The " Gymnasia " form the highest class of public schools, 
and, with the " Hellenic " above described, afford a sound 

secondary education to the Greek youth 
"Gymnasia." of all sorts and conditions. For in the 

Gymnasia, as in the Hellenic schools, the 
entrance fees are merely nominal, fifteen drachmcB being 
payable for the first six months of each year and ten for the 
second, the only additional expense involved being the 
purchase of class books. The curriculum occupies a period 
of four years, during which the pupil passes from the lowest 
to the highest of as many corresponding forms, from thirty-one 
to thirty-five hours' attendance per week in the lecture rooms 
being required of him. The course of study in the Gymnasia 
being pre-eminently classical and theoretical, ten hours per 
week are devoted to ancient Greek, two or more to Latin, 
and as many to French, the only modern language taught, 
while the remaining hours of study are occupied with general 
and scripture history, botany, zoology and mathematics, or 
theology, philosophy and logic, according to the standing of 
the pupils, the seniors in their last year mastering the 
geography of the world. 

The necessity for physical, side by side with intellectual 
training having some years ago been recognised by the educa- 
tional authorities, gymnastic exercises were made compulsory 
in all schools, private as well as public, and for girls as well as 
for boys, the physically defective only being exempt from 
attendance at the classes which occupy an hour of every 
alternate day in the Deme and Hellenic schools, and five hours 



64 Greece of the Hellenes 

per week in the Gymnasia. The same enactment provides 
that, wherever possible, swimming shall also be taught to all 
schoolboys, those in the senior classes of the intermediate 
schools being required in addition to practise rowing and target 
shooting, all the schools taking part in the annual gymnastic 
competitions. Concurrently with this inclusion of gymnastics 
in the curriculum of the public schools an official School of 
Gymnasts was created for the training of those who would be 
called upon to teach these exercises. The formation of 
gymnastic clubs soon followed, of which there are now a great 
number, partly supported by government subsidies. With 
these they are, however, by degrees able to dispense, as 
athletics are yearly growing more popular with the rising 
generation. An organisation calling itself the " Central 
Union of Athletic and Gymnastic Societies " arranges for 
the participation of these clubs in the Panhellenic games held 
every spring in the Stadium, an enormous roofless erection 
which occupies the site of its prototype constructed in 
330 B.C. 

Weekly half-holidays not being customary in Greece as 
in European countries generally, school routine is during 

nine months of the year diversified only by 
Holidays. the whole holidays with which the greater 

festivals of the ecclesiastical year are 
honoured. Like all southern peoples, the Greeks are early 
risers, and the schools open betimes — ^the hour varying 
according to season, the major part of the day's work being 
already accomplished by noon, when the church bells of the 
neighbourhood announce the national dinner hour. The 
long vacation, which extends from mid- June to mid- 
September, applies equally to schools of all three grades, 
as also to the University. 

The director of a " complete " Deme school is required 
to have undergone a three years' training at one of the colleges 
established for that purpose in the capital, in Corfu, and 
in the provincial towns of Tripolis and Larissa respectively. 



Education 65 

There is also another class of elementary school teacher 
who has studied only one year in those establishments, and still 
a third category who has qualified by passing through a secon- 
dary course of study at a " Hellenic " school, 
Elementary though this lower class of masters is happily 
Teachers. tending to disappear. From a pecuniary 
point of view there is little to induce a 
man of any ability to enter upon a scholastic career, the 
director of a first-class Deme school receiving little more 
than £10 a year ; while the salaries of directors of Hellenic 
schools, whose attainments and training are naturally of a 
higher quality, range between £8 and £10 per month, those 
of assistant-masters not exceeding half those sums. 

The necessity for a technical in addition to a purely literary 
education of the Greek youth of to-day having for some 
time past been recognised by the more 
Technical practically minded among Hellenic statesmen 
and philanthropists, a certain number of 
institutions have been established with this object. Among 
these are two Schools of Commerce subsidised by the Govern- 
ment, one at the Capital and the other at the thriving seaport 
of Patras, with a third at Kephallenia — an island noted 
for the keen commercial instinct of its inhabitants — privately 
founded and endowed. In another island, Naxos, there is 
also a Commercial school conducted by the French " Brother- 
hood of the Holy Cross " which is under the special protection 
of the Republic in the person of its Minister at Athens. 

Another important institution of this class, the 
" Rousopoulos " Industrial and Commercial Academy of 
Athens, privately founded about twenty years ago, provides 
a good general education in addition to technical instruction. 
For the latter six special schools are provided, dealing 
respectively with agriculture, manufactures, commerce, 
engineering, mining, and the mercantile marine, the French, 
English, and Itahan languages — all necessary in Levantine 
commerce — ^being taught in the preliminary school, and Latin 

5— (2385) 



66 Greece of the Hellenes 

to the students in the technical schools. Turkish, however, 
though equally necessary, is neglected. For the course 
in any one of these departments, which lasts for two years, 
the fees are about £8 yearly, and in the preliminary school 
£13, board costing an additional £48 per annum. In this 
academy 200 or more pupils are usually found in training, 
drawn from all parts of the kingdom, and also not infrequently 
also from the neighbouring Ottoman empire, a staff of thirty- 
six professors being provided for the various schools. The 
pupils on completing their respective courses readily find 
employment ; and the importance of the work done by 
the institution is both publicly and practically recognised 
by the municipalities of Athens and the Piraeus, from each of 
which it receives an annual subsidy. Another, but smaller, 
institution of the same class as this Academy, the " Athens 
school of Trades and Industries," has also preparatory, 
commercial, and technical departments. 

But although universal education for boys is now the rule 
in Greece, the proportion of girls who receive a similar 

systematic and complete course of instruction 
Ed "^f * is by no means yet very large. The only 

" mixed " schools found in the country are 
those for infants and the smaller Deme schools of sparsely 
inhabited villages ; and a striking disparity is evident in the 
number of those specially provided for girls in all the three 
grades of Deme, Hellenic and Gymnasia, even primary 
schools exclusively for girls being still, as compared with those 
for boys, only about one in five. The chief reason for this 
lack of girls' schools is the lack of demand for them by parents. 
Marriage being considered a Greek girl's vocation in life, 
education — and especially higher education — is deemed super- 
fluous by the Hellenic paterfamilias, the old-fashioned 
prejudice that it unfits them for domestic life dying very 
hard among the nation generally. This is more especially 
the case in the provinces of Northern Greece added to the 
kingdom some thirty years ago, where lack of funds has 



Education 67 

prevented the thorough carrying out of the educational 
system estabhshed in the rest of the kingdom. 

The first regular training college for female schoolmistresses, 
the " Pallas," was founded in 1874, and in the following 
year, thanks to the munificence of M. M. 
Training Zappas and the exertions of the " Ladies' 
Women °^ Syllogos," a second was organised and 
named, in honour of its chief benefactors, the 
" Zappeion." In each of these institutions the curriculum 
resembles in all essential particulars that of similar colleges 
in Western Europe, and their Greek graduates have not been 
inferior in intellectual attainments to those of France and 
Germany. Training colleges with equally advanced methods 
were subsequently established in various provincial towns 
with a view to providing teachers for the Deme schools of 
their districts which had hitherto been supplied from the 
Athenian colleges. Another important institution combining 
High School and Training College is the " Arsakeion," which 
has flourishing branches at Patras, Larissa and Corfu, the 
total average attendance at these four establishments reaching 
the respectable number of 1,800. This valuable institution 
owes its origin to the munificence of, and is named after, a 
patriotic Greek of loannina, to which Epirote city, so long 
under Ottoman domination, Greece owes, in the opinion 
of the late eminent historian, M. Paparregopoulos, " the 
regeneration of education." ^ 

^ In the ancient basilica of St. Demetrios at Salonica — once the 
cathedral church, but converted by the Turks into a mosque in 1397 — 
is still to be seen an ancient mural tablet bearing a Greek inscription 
in which are extolled the charity and munificence of a Greek lady of 
loannina, named the Kyria Spandoni ; and the excellent Greek schools 
of Salonica owe their prosperity to another lady of the lake-girt capital 
of Epirus, the Kyria Kastrissio, who bequeathed to them the whole 
of the large fortune she inherited from her husband, a native of 
Salonica. The memory of this benefactress is annually honoured with 
a Mnemdsynon, or Commemoration ceremony, by the Greek community 
of Salonica ; and when residing in this city I never failed to avail 
myself of the invitation courteously extended to me by the Ephors of 
the schools. 



68 Greece of the Hellenes 

Education in the Arsakeion colleges is not, however, 
gratuitous, though the fees are low, day-pupils pajring accord- 
ing to age from 20 to 40 drachmce (16s. to 

^^Cd[ege^^'°" 32s.) per month, and boarders 100 dr. (£4) 
which includes the cost of school-books. 
While providing instruction for girls of all ages these 
institutions at the same time constitute training colleges for 
teachers. Infants enter first the Kindergarten class, and 
after passing through the four classes corresponding to 
those of the Deme schools, are admitted to the secondary 
course. This includes such advanced subjects as psychology 
and philosophy, ancient Greek and modern languages, French 
being compulsory, as is also singing, and, in the higher classes, 
drawing and painting. Instruction is also given in domestic 
economy and needlework of various kinds, as also in hygiene, 
and the same number of hours per week are devoted to 
g5nnnastic exercises as in the Government schools. The 
organisation of these colleges is essentially democratic, and 
partly on this account, and partly owing also to the establish- 
ment in the capital and its neighbourhood of some good 
private schools, the Arsakeion, which was originally very well 
attended, has of late years somewhat lost favour with the 
wealthier section of Athenian families. 

Of private schools for girls, the oldest established 

is that called — after its missionary founder — the " Hill " 

school, which was founded at Athens so long 

The "Hill" ago as 1831, before that city became the 
Girls capital of the Hellenic kingdom. Originally 

a very modest enterprise, it met with deserved 
success, and has been for some time past located in a pleasant 
house built for the purpose which usually accommodates about 
three dozen boarders and from 160 to 171 day pupils, the 
majority of the former being, as in many of the private 
schools for boys, either natives of Thessaly — the most back- 
ward educationally of all the Greek provinces — or of " Enslaved 
Hellas." The present directress of the Hill school is Miss 



Education 69 

Mason, a niece of its founder, and under her able management 
the institution continues to prosper. But though nominally 
a Mission school, no attempt is made to proselytise the pupils ; 
and the religious difficulty is met by the provision on the pre- 
mises of a chapel in which services are held on Sundays and 
festivals according to the Orthodox rite, Mass being said 
and a short sermon based on the Gospel for the day being 
preached by a Greek chaplain, while the girls act 'in turn 
as readers and servers at the altar. The pupils range in age 
from five to seventeen, and are divided into seven classes, the 
hours of study being the same as those of the National schools. 
The Hill school offers considerable f acihties for the acquisition 
of foreign languages, all the pupils learning English and French 
in addition to Modern Greek, and in its five senior classes 
Ancient Greek forms also one of the subjects of study. 

The University of Athens, which forms one of an imposing 

group of buildings, was founded so long ago as 1837, very 

shortly after the seat of Government had 

T^^^j University ^^^^ transferred to that city from Tripohs, 
the first capital of Greece. Its seventy- 
fifth anniversary coinciding with the visit of the Congress of 
OrientaHsts to the Greek capital in 1912, the double event 
was celebrated with great public rejoicings. The University 
of Athens comprises five faculties — Law, Medicine, Philosophy, 
Mathematics and Theology, the first being the most numer- 
ously attended, and the last — for reasons elsewhere alluded 
to — ^the least popular ; and the course extends over a period 
of four years. The fees are so moderate as to place University 
education within the reach of all who can devote to it the 
necessary time, the total expense in fees for the four years' 
course not exceeding £30 ; and the youth of Hellas were, during 
the past century, in every way encouraged to graduate at 
this seat of learning. The result has been the creation of an 
intellectual class far too numerous for the professions for 
which they had qualified themselves, and unfitted to earn 
a living by honest manual toil. Within the last quarter of a 



70 Greece of the Hellenes 

century, however, the grave national danger of this state of 
affairs — of which the wiser Hellenes have long been conscious 
— has become more generally recognised ; and simultaneously 
with the establishment of technical schools there has been a 
great falling off in the number of aspirants to a University 
career. Between 1890 and 1903 the number of students 
had diminished by more than a third, and there are now on 
an average under 600 freshmen a year, the sons of " Outside 
Greeks " constituting about a third of this number. As in 
Continental countries generally, there are no colleges as at 
our English Universities, and the students live where they 
please, without any supervision ; nor is any difference in 
status recognised between men in their different years, 
a freshman being, in this democratic community, the equal 
of any other undergraduate. Little corporate life is found 
consequently among the alumni generally, such as exists 
arising merely from the clannishness observable among those 
hailing from the same patris — ^to use the term by which a 
Greek designates his native town or village — and resulting in 
the formation of particularist clubs similar to those organised 
by the cosmopolitan students of the University of Lausanne. 
No cricket, football, or other sporting matches take place, 
however, between these clubs, as games occupy by no means 
the same place in Athenian University life as at Oxford 
and Cambridge ; even the gymnastic drill which is compulsory 
for undergraduates in their first and second years was, on its 
introduction, regarded by many as a nuisance. 

Though Greek undergraduates constitute on the whole an 
inoffensive element of the Athenian public, from which they 

are undistinguished by college gown, cap, or 
S^dent^ badge, student riots have on two occasions 

since the beginning of the present century 
disturbed the peace of the capital, one of these having led 
more or less directly to a change of Ministry. This was the 
so-caUed " Gospel Riot " of November, 1901, which was 
due chiefly to the indignation of the students and others at 



Education 71 

the publication of a translation into the vernacular of the 
New Testament ; the second series of disturbances being 
also connected with the linguistic question. 

It is no unusual thing for the more seriously minded Greeks, 
after graduating at their own university, to complete their 
studies abroad, not a few of these subsequently quahfying 
for degrees in the most famous centres of learning in Western 
Europe. Especially is this the case with those who propose 
to embark on a literary, scientific, or professorial career ; 
and among occupants of Chairs in the various faculties 
comprised within the University of Athens may be found 
many whose names are well known in academic circles 
throughout Europe. 



CHAPTER VII 

LITERATURE AND ART 

The Greeks are great readers of newspapers ; the majority oi * 
the nation may, indeed, be said to read nothing else ; and 

in Greece the Press plays consequently a 
^*PrM^^^^ more important part in the Hfe of the people 

than in any other country. It is estimated 
that every Greek man, woman, and child either reads, or 
hears read, at least one paper every day, all without exception 
finding his or her chief interest in its political columns. Nor 
are they exclusive as to their daily news-sheet. A Greek will 
read anything that comes to hand in the shape of a journal, 
and it is estimated that every copy of a newspaper sold is 
read by at least a dozen persons. The first Greek daily paper 
was printed at Mesolonghi, nearly ninety years ago, before 
Greece became a kingdom, an Englishman, Col. Leicester 
Stanhope, being responsible for its production. Fourteen or 
fifteen morning and evening papers are now published daily in 
Athens, consisting of four, or at the most six pages of moderate 
size, the price of several being but five U'ptd, or one halfpenny. 
Halfpenny journalism was first introduced by the Skrip and 
the Embros, this innovation obliging some other sheets for a 
time also to lower their prices. The result proved, however, 
so financially disastrous, that several leading journals reverted 
ere long to their original price of ten leptd, a penny. The 
great demand for news notwithstanding, journalism is by no 
means a profitable enterprise in Greece. For the art of 
advertising is yet in its infancy ; paper, being a foreign pro- 
duct, and consequently highly taxed, is expensive ; and the 
daily circulation of the most widely-read journal does not 
exceed 15,000. The distribution and sale of all newspapers 

72 



Literature and Art 73 

is, besides, centred entirely in the hands of an agency organised 
and controlled by a single man, M. Zangaris, who began life 
as a shoeblack and newsboy, and is now the " W. H. Smith " 
of Hellenic journalism ; and as the vendors are allowed by 
this agency from 20 to 25 per cent, on the price of the papers, 
the profits to the proprietors would seem to be but infinitesimal. 
Office expenses are, however, not very considerable. Office 
rents are low, the staff is small, and though it works seven 
days a week — for Sunday issues are customary — is not liber- 
ally remunerated ; telegrams cost next to nothing, and the 
foreign newspapers which arrive three times weekly contribute 
largely, with the help of paste and scissors, to the contents 
of an Athenian daily. Certain journals are printed in 
parti-coloured inks, red as well as black, flaring headlines 
stretching across the pages, and the most ordinary pieces of 
news are sensationally announced. 

Home politics are given the greatest prominence in Greek 
journals, the politics of foreign countries coming next in 
importance, daily telegrams being received by the " National 
Agency," an association corresponding to Renter, which is sub- 
sidised by the Government. With regard to social matters 
there is little sensationalism and less scandalmongering. A 
column is usually devoted to " Athens day by day," record- 
ing the arrival and departure of distinguished strangers, 
audiences held by the king, the movements of the royal 
family, and similar social events of public interest ; another, 
under the heading of Me liga logia, gives in condensed 
form items of interesting information selected from the world's 
press. In the opinion of the Greeks themselves the literary 
style of the Press is improving with every year, both as regards 
political articles and those dealing with social topics. ^ At the 

^ The long sustained and hotly debated controversy with respect 
to the form of Greek to be officially accepted appears at last to have 
been decided in favour of the Kaeapevovaa, or " pure " form which is 
now used in all government departments and State-directed educational 
establishments, as also more or less by writers for the Press. The 
language which finds most favour in the higher literary circles of 



74 Greece of the Hellenes 

present day the Athenian Press is represented by a number of 
high-class newspapers, the morning daihes including the 
AkropoUs, Athenai, Asty, NeonAsty, Kairoi, Chronos, and Skrip, 
and the evening issues the Hestia, Esperini, and Ephemeris. 

Greek politics having hitherto been a question of party 
leaders rather than of principles, journals are not as a rule un- 
compromisingly partisan in their attitude with 

Political regard to questions of the day. Several have. 

Journalism. o t. j _ » 

indeed, been known to change sides with 

remarkable rapidity, censuring one day a statesman whom they 
praise on the morrow, and vice versa. Each has, however, its 
peculiar characteristic. The oldest established is the Kairoi, 
or " Times," one of the smaller papers, now in its forty-sixth 
year of publication. A leading and very reputable Conser- 
vative paper, patronised by the Palace, is the Asty, edited by 
M. Annin6s. This journal is always well-informed on sub- 
jects relating to England, and represents the old journalism, 
its rival, the Neon Asty, edited by M. Kaklamanos — which 
owed its origin to a schism which took place about ten years 
ago among the staff of the Asty — usually taking diametrically 
opposite views both in politics and other matters ; while 
such papers as the Skrip and the Embros are bought for 
the " latest news," that being their specialty. Other 
journals, the morning AkropoUs and the evening Hestia, for 
instance, often contain in addition to news carefully-written 
and often brilliant articles on social and literary topics. As 
the Athenian journals circulate everywhere in Greece and 
the Islands, only two provincial towns, Volo 

Provincial ^^^ Patras, have their local dailies, such out- 
Journals. 

Ijring centres as S5nra and Corfu contenting 

themselves with a weekly or bi-weekly issue, while other 

journals cater specially for the needs of the " outside Greeks " 

Greece is, however, rather an amalgamation of the puristic and the 
demotic forms. And it will probably be long before Academic Greek 
completely supplants the popular form of the language, which, amus- 
ingly enough, is often, in unguarded moments, used even by its 
fiercest opponents. 



Literature and Art 75 

domiciled in Turkey and elsewhere. One of these, the Krdtos, 
a bi-weekly published in Athens, is the only Greek newspaper 
belonging to shareholders. Among the contributors to the 
Krdtos are many eminent men of letters, it is non-partisan in 
politics, and in its pages the pan-Hellenic propaganda is 
strenuously carried on. Another Hellenic organ of equally 
high standing catering for Greeks abroad is the Neon 
Hemera, or " New Day," pubhshed at Trieste. 

A certain number of weekly magazines and reviews are 
also produced in Greece. The two deahng with economics 
are Economic Greece, and the Economic 
Professional Chronicle, the former directed by the banker, 
^"'organs"*^^^ M. J. J. Minettas, a recognised authority on 
Greek financial and industrial questions, 
whose opinions are frequently quoted in foreign financial 
pubUcations, The legal profession is catered for by the 
Themis ; the medical by a journal pubhshed at Sjn-a ; while 
the bi monthly Nautical Greece constitutes the organ of the 
navy. There are also periodicals dealing with subjects of 
special interest for the large communities from outl^ring parts of 
the kingdom who have made their home in the Capital. Of 
these may be mentioned the Voice of the Cyclades, which caters 
for the ^gean Islanders, and the Voice of Epiros, dealing more 
particularly with the affairs of that province. Among minor 
weekly publications of a more popular character may be 
mentioned a little magazine entitled the Patria, pubhshed 
with the object of inculcating sentiments of patriotism to the 
Fatherland and of loyalty to the Church. This magazine, 
which is largely distributed among soldiers and sailors, contains 
among other matter, biographies of national heroes, and articles 
of a high religious and moral character. An admirable bi- 
weekly of high reputation is the old-estab- 
French lished Messat'er d'AtMnes, written in academic 

XvCVlCWS 

French, and edited by a lady, Mdlle. Ste- 
phanopoh, the daughter of its present proprietor. This 
interesting review deals ably, and from an international rather 



76 Greece of the Hellenes 

than an exclusively Hellenic standpoint, with political, literary, 
archaeological and financial questions affecting Greece. Lately 
enlarged, it now appears in good up-to-date form, and is well 
printed. Another publication in the French language, Les 
Nouvclles de Grece, is a long-established, high-class illustrated 
weekly, treating chiefly of politics, literature, and finance, 
which has entered on a new epoch of success since it came into 
the hands of its present proprietor, M. Zographides, a barrister 
and distinguished writer, its political and financial, as well as 
its literary and social articles being all brightly and ably 
written. Le Pr ogres and Le Courrier d' Orient, both bi-lingual, 
are also well-edited periodicals. Of illustrated magazines the 
best is the fortnightly Panathenaia, which is well got up, and 
contains good literary matter in addition to illustrations of a 
high order. There are also several monthly artistic literary 
and scientific reviews of merit, such as the Propyloea, the 
Orient, etc. 

Though the Greeks can hardly, as a nation, be said to be 
endowed with a keen sense of humour, they possess at least 

one comic journal which calls for special 
" P ^^h^'^ notice as being quite unique of its kind. This 

is the weekly Romeos, to which its editor, M. 
Soures, is a sole contributor. It is written entirely in 
verse, chiefly in the so-called " political " metre of the 
majority of Greek ballads, interspersed here and there with 
lyrics, and in a diction composed of all the various tongues 
which make up the lingua Franca of the Levant mingled with 
Athenian slang and phrases from classical Greek. In 
this curious jargon every topic of the day, every public man, 
every current incident is made the subject of facetious dia- 
logue between M. Soures' two puppets, " Phasoulis " and 
" Perikletos," whose remarks have been characterised as 
" never stale and never insipid." 

Next to newspapers, no form of literature is so largely read 
in Greece as history, for which — and more especially, of 
course, for that of his own country — ^the modern Hellene 




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Literature and Art 77 

seems to have a perfect passion. So great, indeed, is the 

demand for books of a serious character that Greek publishers 

find it more profitable to produce historical 

History ^^^ scientific works than even popular fiction, 
in Greece 

And it would appear that no department 

of journalism is so well paid as articles of an historical 
and biographical character. Such being the case, it is not 
surprising that a number of modern Hellenes of the foremost 
intellectual rank have devoted themselves to historical studies, 
and with distinguished success, the works of not a few of 
them being already well known in Europe. Among these 
may be noted the History of the Greek Nation, to the writing 
of which the late M. Paparregopoulos devoted many years. 
This is a monumental work in five substantial tomes, which 
has already gone through several editions, and is widely read, 
some 16,000 complete copies having been sold in the twenty 
years following its publication. ^ 

A recent issue of this great work, which traces the vicissi- 
tudes of the Greek race from the earliest times down to the 

establishment of the Greek kingdom, has had 
^rit'^rs^^ the advantage of being further elucidated by 

the notes of its latest editor. Professor Karo- 
lides, the distinguished professor of history, and is pronounced 
to be " a masterpiece of which any nation might be proud." 
The first impression of Professor Lambro's important work 
on the same subject was eagerly awaited by a large circle of 
expectant readers, and at once bought up. Greek ecclesi- 
astical history has also not been neglected, and the " Seven 
Essays on Christian Greece " of the late M. Demetrios 
Bikelas are already well known in this country through 
the able English translation made by the late Marquis of 
Bute. 

The mediaeval period of Greek history has also had many 
able students and expositors. M. Meliarakes, the learned 

1 A French abridgment of this great work was published some 
thirty years ago. 



78 Greece of the Hellenes 

Secretary of the Historical and Ethnological Society of Athens, 
has written a History of the Greek Despotate of Epiros and 

the Empire of Nice, the two new Hellenic 
Medieval States which arose after the Latin conquest 

of Constantinople, and were instrumental in 
keeping alive the Hellenic tradition. The published results 
of the researches in the mediaeval history of Greece under- 
taken by Professor Lambros have also met with wide appre- 
ciation ; while those of M. Sathas on this fascinating period 
have been published at the expense of the State in a " Mediaeval 
Library," together with his series of Memorials of Greek His- 
tory, based on Venetian archives and illustrating the state 
of Greece under Venetian rule. A Corfiote scholar, the late 
M. Romanes, also made this romantic period the subject of 
special study ; the Ottoman conquest and domination having 
been dealt with by this able and erudite writer in a work en- 
titled Turkish Rule in Hellas. This period has likewise been 
carefully studied by other historians, first by M. Demetrios 
Kampouroglos in two lengthy and scholarly works, one of 
these, the History of the Athenians, being a perfect mine of 
interesting and valuable information with regard not only 
to the political events of the time, but to all that appertained 
to the daily life of the people of Athens. Half a lifetime has 
also been devoted by M. Philadelpheus to an agreeably 
written work published since the beginning of this century, 
in which the whole era of Turkish rule in Greece is 
traversed. 

Modern Greek history appears, however, to have had fewer 
attractions for scholars, the only authors of note who have 

occupied themselves with nineteenth cen- 
Greek°HSory. *^^ Greece being M. Kyriakides who. in 

his History of Contemporary Hellenism, deals 
with events prior to 1892 ; and M. Evangelides, who has 
constituted himself the chronicler of the reign of Otho as well 
as of the events which more immediately followed the deposi- 
tion of that sovereign. Another " Library " bearing the 



Literature and Art 79 

name of its patron, M. Marasles, a wealthy and patriotic 
Greek of Odessa, includes among its publications translations 
of a number of masterpieces both modern and classical. 
Memoirs of distinguished Greek families and biographies of 
men of note in Greek history are also published from time 
to time, together with local chronicles, many of which are of 
great interest and value. 

Nor is the history of their own country and its relations 
with other States alone of interest to the modern Greek. In 
the Faculty of History at the University the class-room will 
be found crowded to repletion when an eminent lecturer is 
expected to address the students on such larger aspects of 
the subject as are comprised in General History and its 
philosophy. Nor will the audience be composed of students 
only, but also of many men of mature age, eager for information 
with regard to the results of recent historical research. 

Several useful books of reference are also regularly pub- 
lished in Greece. Among these is Iglessis' Annual Guide to 
Greece, a publication which supplies full and 
Works of accurate information with regard to the pro- 
ductions, commerce, and government of the 
country. This valuable compendium was originally published 
in Greek only, with a resume in French as supplement. Its 
enterprising proprietor and editor, M. Iglessis, proposes, 
however, to issue in future separate Greek and French editions, 
and also to enlarge the scope of his Guide by including in it 
similar information with regard to the Balkan countries 
generally. Other annuals published and widely circulated 
in Greece are certain " Almanacks," more or less on the lines 
of the English Whitaker and the French Hachette, containing 
much interesting and accurate information. 

A Society, having for its aim the dissemination of practical 
knowledge in an elementary form, was founded in 1899 under 
the patronage of Queen Sophia, with M. Drosines, the novehst, 
as secretary, its first President having been the late M. 
Demetrios Bikelas. A new volume in this series is issued 



80 Greece of the Hellenes 

every month, and the price of forty Uptd, or 4d., brings 

these admirable httle volumes within reach of the poorest. 

But though issued at so moderate a price, not 

Popular Qj^jy g^j-g ^YiQ volumes in this series illustrated. 
Literature. "^ 

well printed, and uniformly bound in red, but 

the list of contributors includes such eminent names as those 

of Professor Karolides, MM. Bikelas, Anninos, Meliarakes, 

Drosines, and other literary men of the highest standing, 

together with those of specialists in their various departments. 

Certain volumes have been largely bought by the Ministry of 

Marine for distribution in the navy, and by the War Office for 

distribution in the army ; the Duties of a Citizen was, on its 

appearance, ordered by the Ministry of Education to be made a 

school reader ; and one of the most successful hitherto is 

entitled Our Church, an ably-written little work, in which the 

origin and meaning of all the services, fasts, feasts, and sacred 

objects of the Orthodox Church are described and explained. 

Other booklets in this series deal with such subjects as the 

Forests question in Greece, natural history — " Birds " and 

" Bees," for instance, by M. Drosines, and foreign countries, 

together with abridgments of such classics as Plutarch's Lives. 

Some volumes of a Children's Library have also been issued 

by the same society ; and the less educated reader is catered for 

by the " People's Library," issued by the enterprising publisher,' 

M. Konstantinides, at prices ranging from a halfpenny to 

twopence. 

In the realm of fiction no work of special eminence has yet 

appeared in modern Greek. M. Rhangabes, the distinguished 

diplomatist and man of letters, wrote both 
Greek novels and memoirs. The late M. Roides 

produced some years ago an historical novel, 
Pope Joan, which has had a certain vogue. M. Drosines is, per- 
haps, best known in this country by his short novel translated 
under the title of The Herb of Love, and M. Bikelas by his 
Loukes Ldras, which has been published in no fewer than five 
European languages. So far, however, the medium of the 



Literature and Art 81 

short story has been chiefly adopted by Greek fictionists, and 
among the best writers of this class may be mentioned, in 
addition to the above-named, M. Episkopopoulos, author of a 
volume of Tales of Eventide ; " Elevtheris Arghyriotis," ^ 
a translated collection of whose charming Tales from the Greek 
Islands was, a few years ago, published in this country, and 
MM. Moriatides and Papadiamantes, whose stories are redolent 
of the soil and air of Hellas. Of the last-mentioned author, 
who passed away in his native isle of Sciathos in 1911, it has 
been said that his literary individuality was more imposing 
than that of any other modern Greek writer of fiction. At 
once idealistic and realistic, he was one of the very few who 
have introduced pure narrative in a setting of present-day 
Greek life and folk custom. 

Among the earlier poets of Modern Greece were Julius 
Typaldos, Solomos, author of the famous Hymn to Liberty, 
who died in 1857, and Valaorites, the bard of the Greek 
Revolution, whose beautiful poems in the Epirote dialect 
have been characterised as " works of the highest genius " ; 
while among later writers of verse may be instanced Alexander 
Rhangabes, Demetrios Bikelas, Augustos Vlachos, Spiridion 
Lambros, Kostas Palamas, George Vizyenos, Drosines and 
Valvis. A goodly number at the present day also woo the 
poetic muse, but among them do not appear any names of 
special pre-eminence. 

Of Greek women writers, Madame Kallirrhoe Parren may 

be said to be the most eminent, as she is not only a favourite 

author of works of fiction, but also the editor 

Women ^j ^ periodical called The Ladies' Newspaper, 

the contributors to which are all women. Her 

novels include a trilogy called " Books of the Dawn," which 

comprises The Freedwoman, The Witch, and The New 

Contract, all written in the " pure " form of modern Greek ; 

and among Madame Parren's other publications may be 

^ The writer under this pseudonym, who prefers to remain anony- 
mous, has long been resident in England. 

6-(3385) 



82 Greece of the Hellenes 

mentioned two volumes of " Impressions," entitled respectively 
My Journeys, and A Year's Life, together with her studies 
on the condition of women at various periods of the world's 
history. Another Greek lady, Mrs. Kenneth Brown — nee 
Mdlle. Demetra Vaka — who was educated at Constantinople, 
and is reputed an authority on the woman question in Turkey, 
has recently published in English some interesting studies of 
Turkish life, entitled respectively — In the Shadow of Islam, and 
Pages from the Life of Turkish Women. But notwithstanding 
the high level of culture which has for many years past obtained 
among the favoured few in the three great Greek literary 
centres of the Levant — Athens, Constantinople, and Smyrna 
— ^women writers are as yet but very limited in number ; and 
in addition to the above-mentioned contributions by women 
to the literature of modern Greece, there is little worthy of 
mention beyond a few minor educational treatises, some 
translations of foreign works, chiefly fiction, and certain 
articles in periodical publications. 

Modern Greek dramatic works appear to consist much more 
largely of plays based on classical and mediaeval subjects than 
of those dealing with contemporary social life. In the first 
rank of historical dramatists must be placed M. Ber- 
nadakis, whose plays deal with various periods of Hellenic 
history. Among these may be instanced his Merope, which 
has a classical setting ; his Nikephoros Phokas, illustrating 
the exploits of the tenth century Byzantine general who 
recovered Crete from the Saracens, and ultimately ascended 
the Imperial throne ; his Maria Doxapatre, a drama dealing 
with the French conquest of the Morea, in which Geoffrey de 
Villehardouin and Guillaume de Champlitte are prominent 
characters, the heroine being the daughter of a Greek archon 
of Arkadia, while his tragedy of Euphrosyne belongs to the 
early eighteenth century, being founded on the romantic 
story of the relations of a beautiful Greek of that name with 
Moukhtar Bey, a son of the Tjnrant of loannina, " Vizier 
Ali," who caused Phrosyne and seventeen other women to 



Literature and Art 83 

be drowned in the lake. ^ Greek dramatists generally have, 
however, hitherto occupied themselves rather with the transla- 
tion and adaptation of classical dramas than with original 
work. Antigone, (Edipus Tyr annus and the Orestia of 
Sophocles have been rendered into modern Greek as has also 
Goethe's Iphigenia in Tauris ; the late M. Bikelas had the 
courage to translate some of Shakespeare's plays ; and Ibsen 
in Greek has been represented on the Athenian stage, where 
translations of French plays are also frequently given. 

Greece possesses also her Schools of Art, and already claims 
to have among her sons a number of painters and sculptors of 
high merit. Among the most eminent genre and portrait 
painters may be mentioned MM. Gyzes, Roilos, Kontopoulos, 
Oikonomos, Phrixos and Jacovidhes, the last-named occupying 
the post of Director of the National Portrait Gallery of Athens, 
Landscapists and seascapists are also fairly numerous, the 
most highly reputed of the former being M. Phokas, M. Hadjo- 
poulos, and Mdlle. Laskaridou, and of the latter M. Hadjes 
and M. Prosalendes. Among water-colourists of note may be 
named MM. Bokatsiaves, Hadjopoulos and Giallen^s, all 
three natives of the island of Corfu. The artistic profes- 
sion in Greece also includes in its ranks in addition to the 
talented lady above named a number of women who send some 

1 The poet Valaoritis has also made this story the subject of a fine 
dramatic poem ; and the tragic fate of Kyra 'Phrosfne — which caused 
her sins to be forgiven and transformed her into a heroine and martyr — 
is described in many a folk-ballad. One of these, belonging to the 
lake-girt city of loannina, concludes as follows — 

" But neither golden coins, nor tears, can move the Vizier's mood ; 
And thou and seventeen more fair dames must be for fishes' food. 
"Ah, Phrosy'ne, partridge mine, 
Evil weird to dru is thine ! 

" A thousand measures in the lake will I of sugar throw ; 
The water to Phrosyne's lips will then be sweet, I trow. 
"Ah, Phrosfne, far renowned, 
Famed in all the world around! 

" Blow fiercely, bitter Boreas, blow, and make the waters roar 
And surge, and cast Phros5'ne with those ladies on the shore. 
' A k, Phrospne, partridge mine, 
Burns my heart this fate of thine ! " 



84 Greece of the Hellenes 

very creditable work to the exhibitions held of late years in 
the capital. Among the half-dozen or more sculptors of 
standing — most of whom come from the Mgean island of 
Tenos — may be mentioned M. Phihppotis and M. Sochos, 
whose fine statue of the great patriot and hero, Kolokotrones, 
has been acquired by the nation and stands in the square near 
the Greek Parliament House. 

As elsewhere mentioned, the Archaeological Society of 
Greece derives a considerable portion of its revenues from the 
State Lottery, instituted in 1874. This Society, which was 
originally founded early in the reign of King Otho, forms 
a department under the control of the Ministry of Education 
and of a Director styled " General Ephor of the Antiquities," 
has for its object the preservation of classical monuments and 
the excavation of buried archseological treasures. In 
connection with this department, which is regarded by the 
Greeks generally as an integral part of their national existence, 
has been founded the important National Museum of Athens, 
an imposing edifice replete with classic treasures. Among 
other important enterprises, the Greek Archaeological Society 
has instituted excavations in many different localities ; taken 
measures for the preservation of the classic monuments of 
the kingdom ; and restored a number of important Byzantine 
and Mediaeval edifices which were falling into ruin. It has 
also founded museums at Chalkis, Thebes and Delos ; while 
every provincial town and every village of any importance 
has now also its little local collection of the archaeological 
remains unearthed in its neighbourhood. AU these museums 
may be visited free of charge. For, unhke Italy, Greece scorns 
to accept money in return for the privilege of inspecting her 
national treasure-houses, and their custodians, many of whom 
are University graduates, will invariably be found well informed 
with regard to their contents as well as courteous and obliging 
to visitors. The Society issues a periodical — ^the Archcsological 
Journal, and also publishes an Annual Report of its work. 

Foreigners having also been encouraged to aid the Greeks 



Literature and Art 85 

in the work of discovery of its buried treasures, there are 
now at Athens no fewer than four Schools of Archaeology 
belonging to other nations. Of these, the oldest is the 
French School, founded in 1846, which occupies a palatial 
building and receives Belgian and Dutch students as well 
as those of French nationality. This school has accomphshed 
most important work in excavating the sites of Delphi and 
Delos, besides operations in other localities. The German 
School, founded in 1874, has also largely contributed to 
the archaeological discoveries of recent years in Greece, 
especially those at Olympia on which a sum of no less than 
£40,000 has been spent. The American School, which dates 
back to 1881 and is generously supported by the various 
Universities and Colleges of the United States, has also 
excavated at Corinth, Eretria, Heroeum, etc. And the 
British School — the latest estabUshed of all — ^has done good 
work in various parts of the Greek mainland, as well as in 
Crete and other islands. 

Athens now possesses an "Academy of Science," presented 
to the city by the late Baron Sina of Vienna. It is built 
entirely of Pentelic marble, profusely and tastefully adorned 
with sculptures, paintings and gilding, illustrative of the 
purpose of the building. The capital is also well supplied with 
hbraries, the Boule or Chamber of Deputies possessing one 
well supplied with literature on every subject connected with 
the country, while the National Library, founded by the 
munificence of the Brothers Vagliano of Kephallenia, is also 
well equipped. 

Among the learned societies of the Greek capital, one of the 
most interesting and perhaps also most important is the 
" Historical and Ethnographical Society," founded in 1883, 
which has for its objects the study of mediaeval and modern 
Greek history and folk-lore. The many interesting exhibits 
of this Society comprise a collection of portraits which most 
strikingly illustrate the story of the long struggle of the 
Greeks for national liberty. Here, in their costumes of a 



86 Greece of the Hellenes 

century ago, axe the Klephts and Armatoles of the mountain 
passes, the sea-captains and privateers who so valiantly 
attacked the Turkish and Egyptian fleets, together with 
the famous leaders whose names have become household 
words in every province of Hellas — Kolokotrones, whose 
helmet is also here preserved, Rhigas Pherraios, Markos 
Botsaris and many others. 

A Greek Folk-lore Society was also founded a few years 
ago for the study of the manners, customs and folk literature 
of the Greek and other races inhabiting the Hellenic Kingdom. 
It has a considerable membership, and has already 
accomphshed some valuable and interesting work. 

A literary society, known as the " Parnassos," forms a 
great centre for the cultured classes of Athens. It possesses 
a fine and spacious lecture hall and reading room, and the 
various interesting lectures here delivered by the most 
eminent literary and scientific men of the city are largely 
attended by the elite of Athenian Society, as also not un 
frequently by members of the Royal Family. The Greeks, 
like their neighbours the Italians, are endowed with fluent 
tongues, and consequently make good lecturers, and members 
of this nation generally are very fond of listening to a good 
parddhosis or discourse. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE CHURCH AND THE CLERGY 

The essential points in which the Orthodox Greek Church 
differs from the Roman CathoHc are (1) the Holy Ghost 
being held to proceed from the Father only ; (2) the ad- 
ministration of the Eucharist in both kinds to the laity ; 
(3) and the substitution of sacred pictures for images of the 
Virgin and Saints. The Sacraments in the Eastern, as in the 
Western Church are seven, and celibacy is required of the 
higher clergy. The Eastern Church is exceedingly tolerant, 
in theory at least, and proselylism is forbidden by the first 
article of the Greek Constitution. Yet the Greeks generally 
appropriate to themselves exclusively the name of 
" Christian," refusing it not only to Protestants and Roman 
Catholics but also to members of the Bulgarian Church, whom 
they regard as schismatics and barbarians, though the creed 
of the latter coincides in all particulars with their own. 
Among the educated classes, however, neither men nor 
women are fanatical, and such externals of religion as fasting 
are little observed. 

Previous to the creation of the Greek kingdom, the headship 
of the Greek Church was vested in the OEcumenical Patriarch 

of Constantinople, who was at the same time 

The tjie political representative of the Greek 

Patriarch. nationality generally, as he still continues 

to be of all Greeks resident within the Ottoman 
dominions. With the internal Government of the Eastern 
Church in the Hellenic kingdom the (Ecumenical Patriarch 
has, however, now no concern, though in recognition of the 
close union between its two divisions he still sends to the 
Metropolitan of Athens the holy oil consecrated with great 
solemnity on Maundy Thursday, and still continues to be 
referred to in all questions of doctrine. 

87 



88 Greece of the Hellenes 

The State Church is in the jurisdiction of the Ministry of 
Education and Ecclesiastical affairs, the organisation of 

control being vested in the Holy Synod, 
Synod an Ecclesiastical Council consisting of the 

Metropolitan, or Archbishop, of Athens — 
who is ex officio its president, — four Bishops and a Royal 
Commission ; and for the accommodation of the spiritual 
members of this body five marble thrones stand in a row 
within the Sanctuary of the Cathedral Church of the Capital. 
Ecclesiastical matters are also dealt with by the " Council 
of the Holy Synod," composed of the four bishops of 
Kephallenia, Ehs, Messenia, and of Mantinea and Kynourie, 
and of other bishops who attend in rotation, the deliberations 
of these ecclesiastics being assisted by the Archimandrite of 
Athens, two secretaries and two registrars. Greece is divided 
into thirty-two episcopal sees, of which thirteen were formerly 
archbishoprics ; but by a law enacted at the beginning 
of this century archiepiscopal rank was abolished and all 
sees are to be placed on the footing of bishoprics on the deaths 
of their present representatives. 

The bishops, who are almost the only functionaries of 
the Church paid by the State, are appointed by the King from 

among three nominees of the Holy Synod, 
^PreSer""^ and must be over thirty years of age. Though 

members of the secular priesthood who are 
widowers are ehgible for episcopal appointments, the bishops 
are, as a rule, drawn from the Monastic body. Their stipends 
are exceedingly moderate, that of the Metropolitan being 
only £2A0 with £120 extra for his services as president of the 
S5niod, the other clerical members of which receive an extra 
allowance of ;£96. The surviving archbishops receive the 
meagre salary of ;^200, and the bishops £160. The only other 
clerics paid by the State are the so-called " Preachers " who 
rank next to the bishops, and receive a stipend of £8 a month, 
their special function being to pronounce discourses in the 
parish churches on certain occasions, notably during the six 




Sebah 



Constantinople 



A GREEK PATRIARCH 



Il 



The Church and the Clergy 89 

weeks of Lent, the secular priesthood, as will presently appear, 
being usually incapable of performing this duty. 

Attached to each diocese is an episcopal court for the trial 
of priests accused of transgressing the Canon Law. The 
members of this Court are fi.ve, including the bishop of the 
diocese who presides, and deputies are appointed to take the 
place of any member of the council unable at any time to 
attend its sessions. The office of bishop, though deprived 
of the political influence previously attached to it under the 
Turkish domination, is still regarded with great respect 
by the members of the Orthodox Church generally, who 
habitually address its occupant with high sounding Byzantine 
titles, and reverently kiss his hand. Frequently men of hand- 
some and venerable aspect, long haired and long bearded, the 
appearance of the bishops when performing the elaborate 
ritual of their ancient church in their gorgeous and 
symbolic episcopal vestments, their jewelled mitres and other 
accessories, is particularly imposing. The subordinate 
degrees of the Greek clergy are those of archimandrite, priest 
and deacon. The first belong, hke the bishops, to the superior 
and celibate order. Priests must be thirty years of age when 
ordained, and are required to marry, though only once, 
deacons being f consecrated at the age of twenty-five, 
after having served as sub-deacons for a certain period during 
which they take part in the liturgy of the church, one of 
their duties being to read the Epistle, the Gospel being read 
by the deacon. Differences in vestments serve to distinguish 
these various ranks of the priesthood during the performance 
of the ordinary church services, the surplice of a bishop having 
wide short sleeves with the ends of the stole hanging down 
in front, that of a priest one without sleeves, while a deacon 
may be recognised by his wearing the stole hanging over the 
left shoulder. The most characteristic part of the dress of 
the Greek clergy is, however, the tall, black, cylindrical hat 
from under which, during the services of the church, the long 
hair waves over the shoulders, though in everyday life it is 



90 Greece of the Hellenes 

coiled in a knot out of sight. Bishops, archbishops and 
patriarchs wear also a black veil thrown over the hat, and 
falling on the shoulders. 

The higher clergy are drawn for the most part from the 
better class of the community, and are not infrequently men 

of considerable attainments and ability. It 
Priests. would, however, on the other hand, be 

difficult to imagine a clergy more ignorant 
than the parish priests, of the rural districts especially. 
Drawn from the same class as his peasant parishioners, enjojnng 
no social superiority by virtue of his priestly office, unsalaried, 
and dependent for the support of himself and his often 
numerous family on the fees paid for christenings, weddings, 
and funerals, house blessings, etc., and on the " Easter 
Offerings " which are oftener paid in kind than in coin, the 
village pappas is, generally speaking, as rude, as uncultured, 
and not infrequently as poor as the humblest member of his 
flock. Various restrictions are also imposed on him. He 
must not, for instance, add to his means by engaging in 
petty commerce ; nor may he vary the monotony of his life 
by appearing in places of public amusement, a cup of coffee 
and a gossip at the village kafineion being the summit of his 
social pleasures. He tills his own little field and garden, 
prunes his vines, and stores their produce for winter con- 
sumption, hospitably sharing his modest fare with the passing 
stranger, and accepting nothing in return. In urban parishes 
the clergy are, however, on the whole, slightly better off, 
and in certain localities — ^Athens for insta,nce — a priest may 
enjoy emoluments in coin and kind amounting to from £100 
to £200 a year. 

In former days the great majority of parish priests were 
absolutely illiterate, having acquired their knowledge of the 
Church's ritual by rote while serving as sub-deacons, the 
composition of sermons not being required of them as these 
are only preached on special occasions and, as above mentioned, 
by specially trained clerics. Nor are things yet greatly, if at 



The Church and the Clergy 91 

all, changed for the better among the country clergy ; and 
considering the enthusiasm of the Greek nation generally 
for education it appears extraordinary that it should continue 
to tolerate such a state of affairs. Before attempting any 
reforms in the church, however, it is necessary to have 
both an educated and an endowed priesthood, and, for these 
purposes no funds are at present available. It has been 
suggested by some modern minded Hellenes that the funds of 
the wealthier monasteries might be applied with advantage 
to general clerical education. A cultured pappas, with no 
fixed income, would, however, find himself quite out of place 
in a remote country parish with only peasants for neighbours 
and companions ; and until the Greek Government is in a 
position to endow its national church, it will probably do 
little towards providing for its secular clergy facilities for 
obtaining a sound theological education. 

The inducements to enter the secular priesthood being, 
as will have been seen, practically nil, it is of little avail to 

educate youths with that special object. 
'^CoUefes^^ *^^ ^^^^ ecclesiastical colleges which 

formerly existed at Corfu, Chalkis, Tripolis 
and Poros, not one is now in existence ; and for the training 
of the whole Greek priesthood there are only two colleges, the 
Rizareion, at Athens, founded and endowed by the brothers 
Rizares in 1844, and a similar institution, of more recent 
date, at Arta, in Northern Greece. Less than a hundred 
students are, however, habitually to be found within the 
former exceedingly well appointed and charmingly situated 
edifice, and of these it is computed that, at the most, only 
about 15 or 20 per cent, ultimately enter the ranks of the 
priesthood. The Rizareion is reputed to be one of the best 
training colleges in Greece, the curriculum including, besides 
theological subjects, the study of ancient and modem 
languages, history, physics, art, archaeology and ecclesiastical 
music. The course lasts five years corresponding to which 
there are five classes, pupils being received at the age of 



92 Greece of the Hellenes 

fifteen after passing through a "Hellenic" school. A 
certain number of day pupils were formerly admitted, but 
the students are now all boarders, and may easily be dis- 
tinguished in the public thoroughfares, or on the Akropolis 
in charge of their instructors, by the blue college initial on 
their black gowns and tall hats, and their hair, worn long 
in priestly fashion, but usually bunched up in a knot. Those 
not on the foundation pay a monthly sum of about {^2 15s. 
which includes, besides board and tuition, clothing and 
medical attendance, holidays being optional in July and 
August. As foundationers who do not ultimately become 
priests are required to refund to the college the money spent 
on them during their five years of residence, the intentions 
of the founders are not altogether defeated. Those students 
who decide to continue their preparation for the priesthood 
are, on the completion of their five years' training, passed on 
to the theological faculty of the National University. Many 
of the youths educated in this college have come from the 
Greek inhabited provinces of Macedonia and Thrace, as also 
from Asia Minor where there is a considerable Greek population 
on the sea-coasts and in various localities of the interior. 

Yet ignorant though the secular clergy undoubtedly are, 
they enjoy, as a class, a high reputation for morality, and 

have in the past done yeoman service in 
Conservatism preserving the Greek nationality and religion. 

For the peculiar position occupied by the 
Greeks during so many centuries, surrounded by a dominant 
population alien alike in creed and race, has caused them to 
regard their church as part and parcel of their national 
existence, and as an illiterate clergy naturally attaches 
greater importance to the ritual than to the spiritual teachings 
of a Church, these practical observances of religion con- 
stituted for this long oppressed people a visible Catechism 
which has done more towards keeping them faithful to the 
Church of their fathers than could have been effected by 
the most eloquent sermons. These outward observances. 




A GREEK PARISH PRIEST 



The Church and the Clergy 93 

severely imposed and solemnly observed, have indeed in- 
variably been regarded by the vulgar as divinely instituted 
ordinances, the neglect of which would draw upon them the 
wrath of God and His Saints in this life as well as in the life 
to come. And whatever may be the private convictions in 
religious matters of cultured individuals, the National Church 
is none the less respected by them as a time-honoured institu- 
tion to which, as Greeks, they owe a heavy debt of gratitude. 
And though many, both among the clergy and the laity, are 
sensible of the inconvenient length of their liturgies and of 
the absurdity of many of the superstitious beliefs and 
practices which have become engrafted on their religion, they 
fear to attempt reforms, lest the nation be weakened by the 
schisms which would probably result. Even the change 
from the " Old " to the " New Style " of reckoning is still 
considered hardly less " hazardous " than it was when Sir 
Paul Ricaut wrote more than two centuries ago : " Lest 
the people observing their guides to vary in the least from their 
ancient, and (as they imagine) canonical profession, should 
begin to suspect the truth of all, and from a doubt dispute 
themselves into an indifference, and thence into an entire 
desertion of the Faith." ^ 

But while this rigid conservatism has led the more highly 
educated and thiliking section of the community to discredit 

the superstitions in which they have been 
Church ^ cradled, religion has come to be regarded 

by the people generally as a system of super- 
stitious Vites regarding times and seasons divided broadly into 
periods of fasting and feasting ; and notwithstanding that the 
Greeks, as above mentioned, consider themselves" Christians " 
par excellence, they have remained in sentiment as pagan 
as were their classic predecessors. The fasts are indeed kept 
with no less patience and sobriety than superstition, it being 
accounted a greater sin to eat of food forbidden by the Church 
than to transgress one of the Ten Commandments. The 
^ Present State of the Greek and Armenian Churches. 



94 Greece of the Hellenes 

rigours of Lent are prepared for by a period of abstention 
from flesh termed " Cheese-eating Week " during which 
dairy produce forms the chief article of diet for the Orthodox. 
Women and girls of the lower orders during Lent subsist 
almost entirely on bread and vegetable food with the result 
that they are usually, before the end of the " Great Fast," 
totally incapacitated for work ; and to 

Observances house-mistresses in the Levant, whether 
" Orthodox " or Heterodox, this period — 
with the subsequent Easter feasting — proves an annual 
domestic trial. Even when seriously ill, all nourishing food 
will be refused, the patient deeming it " better to fast and die 
than to eat and sin." For no " indulgences " in this respect 
are granted by the Greek clergy, though if applied to by a 
doctor they will promise absolution to the sufferer for this 
infringement of the commands of the Church. The sick 
are, however, as a matter of fact, exempted from the strict 
observance of these regulations with regard to food, as are 
also young children, travellers, and soldiers on campaign, the 
latter also even in time of peace being only required to observe 
the first and last ten days of the long fasts. As above 
remarked, the educated and wealthy classes please themselves 
very much in the matter of abstinence ; but by the people 
generally, and especially in the country districts, fasting is 
such an absolute rule that at such times travellers often find 
it difficult, if not impossible, to obtain an5rthing beyond the 
very unsatisfactory fare with which the Orthodox content 
themselves. 

Lent, however, is not the only long and rigorous fast 
annually observed by the Greeks. The " Fast of the 
Holy Apostles " begins on the day following " All Saints' 
Sunday," the Greek term for the first Sunday after Pentecost, 
and lasts until the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul ; the 
fast of " The FaUing Asleep of the Virgin," as it is poetically 
called, occupies the first fortnight of August ; the fourth 
fast lasting throughout the month of Advent and terminating 



The Church and the Clergy 95 

with Christmas Day — the " Feast of the Christ-births." 
Nor does even this exhaust the list, the Feast of the Epiphany 
— " The Lights," as the Greeks term it — must be preceded 
by a day of abstinence ; and the commemoration of the 
death of John Baptist (29th August, o.s.) and " Holy Cross 
Day " (14th September) are fast days, as are also Wednesdays 
and Fridays throughout the year. To those acquainted with 
fasting only as practised in the West, this periodical morti- 
fication of the flesh as understood by the Eastern Churches 
comes as something of a shock. For not only is meat 
abstained from, but on many days all such possible substitutes 

as butter, eggs, cheese, oHve-oil, etc., and 
Diefary. ^^^ ^^^° ^^ forbidden save during the fast of 

Advent, that of the Holy Apostles, on Palm 
Sunday, ^ and on Annunciation Day, unless it falls in " The 
Great Week," as Passion week is termed by the Greeks, 
The prohibition of fish is, however, interpreted by the 
Orthodox as appljdng only to the vertebrate varieties, and 
on " fish " forbidden days they indulge freely in such piscatorial 
deUcacies as sea-urchins and ink-fish, scallops and mussels, 
and even caviare. Vegetables — generally new vrasto, or cooked 
in water only — constitute with bread the only fare provided for 
pious households on special days, while on others fruit, oHves, 
and olive-oil, with various cereals, may be indulged in. 

The services of the Greek Church, with their elaborate 
ceremonial, are usually considered tediously long by the 

uninitiated visitor unaware of their historic 

Greek interest and of the religious symbolism under- 

Religious , . ^, , •? r , . . 

Symbolisms, tymg the many details of their ritual and 

its various accessories. The preparation of 

the elements for use in the Holy Communion is particularly 

1 On Palm Sunday one may hear Juvenile Hellenes chanting a 
rhyme which may be thus rendered — 

" Palm, Palm, Palm Sunday ! 
Kolio fish we eat to-day ; 
But, when comes next Sunday round, 
We'll eat red-dyed eggs so gay ! " 



96 



Greece of the Hellenes 



replete with symbolism. The Bread bears a circular im- 
pression within which is a Greek cross, the upright divided 
into three equal parts in each of which are inscribed in four 
smaller squares, YZ, 'X.X, NI, KA, signifying 'Irjaov^ %/3fco-T09 
vi/ca — " Jesus Christ Conquers." The right arm of the Cross 
contains nine triangles, symbolical of the nine orders of 
Saints, and the left a single triangle denoting the Virgin. 




Diagram of the Sacred Bread 



The central square, which is called " the Lamb," represents 
the Saviour, and is first removed on the bread being cut, 
when the priest, in memory of the piercing of His side, makes 
an incision in the lower left-hand corner of it bearing the 
letters NI. The large triangles are then cut off and placed 
on the paten beside the " Lamb " in honour of the Panaghia, 
the nine small triangles being next severed one by one and 
placed beside it as a reminder to these august personages 
that their mediation is desired on behalf of the worshippers 
present. The remaining sections are finally placed under 
the rest and represent " the quick and the dead." The 
Knife (called \6yxv- " lance ") used for cutting the sacred 

I' 



The Church and the Clergy 97 

loaf is in the form of a lance-head ; by the paten the Manger 
is symbolised ; the four-barred frame supporting the paten- 
veil, which is termed the " asterisk " (da-re pC(rKo<i), recalls 
the Star in the East ; the larger veil {ciTjp) which covers both 
paten and cup representing the " linen cloth " brought by 
Joseph of Arimathea as a shroud for the dead Saviour. S5nii- 
bolic also are the curious emblems carried in the church 
processions, namely, the six-winged angels, the " Sleepless 
Lamb," signifying the Light of the Lord who is the Light of 
the World, together with the htKepov and rpiKepov — the double 
and triple wax tapers used during the benediction which 
represent respectively the Trinity and the dual nature of 
Jesus Christ. 

The public services of the Greek Orthodox Church as 
performed on great occasions are even more magnificent than 

those of Rome, the splendid language in 
Services which its liturgies have been composed being 

peculiarly impressive when well rendered. 
Of these Liturgies there are no fewer than four — (1) the 
" Liturgy of St. Chrysostom " commonly used for Sundays 
and Saints' Days ; (2) that of St. Basil the Great, of which 
t'le former is an abridgment, used only on ten occasions 
during the year — namely, Christmas Eve, New Year's Day, 
Epiphany, on five Sundays in Lent, and Thursday and 
Saturday in Holy Week ; (3) the lengthy Liturgy of St. 
James appropriated to the feast of that Saint, but rarely used ; 
while a fourth, termed the " Liturgy of the Pre-Sanctified," 
is reserved for certain days in Lent and Holy Week. 

The Liturgy is still divided, according to ancient usage, 
into two parts, that " of the catechumens," and that of 

" the faithful." The narthex, where the 
Liturgies former used to stand, still forms part of a 

Greek church, and at the moment when the 
consecrated elements are unveiled, the deacon cries aloud as 
of old, " The doors, the doors ! " a survival of the warning 
to the door-keepers to keep members of that class within the 

7— (2385) 



98 Greece of the Hellenes 

prescribed limits. The hymns and services for all the mov- 
able feasts depending on the date of Easter are contained 
in two separate books called respectively the Triodi and the 
Pentekostarion, the first of which comes into use on the 
tenth Sunday before Easter — the " Sunday of the Publican 
and the Pharisee," so termed from the subject of the day's 
Gospel. On that day " The Triodi opens," in popular par- 
lance, and continues in use until Easter has been celebrated, 
when it is replaced by the Pentikostarion containing the 
services appointed for Trinity Sunday. 

Long as are the services of the Greek Church, the con- 
gregation invariably stand throughout, as no seats are pro- 
vided, even the stalls having supports for the arms only. 
The same posture is also adopted for private devotions by 
the Orthodox, who repeat their morning and evening prayers 
standing before an eikon of the Virgin. Every Greek dwelling, 
however humble, will possess at least one such holy picture, 
and side by side with it will usually be hung another of the 
patron saint of the household, a tiny oil lamp being kept 
continually burning before each. 

Women occupy but a subordinate place in the Greek 

churches, being relegated in city churches to the side aisles, 

and in the country to a gallery termed the 

Women's gynaikonites, which is approached by an 

Church. external staircase. ^ Nor is regular attendance 

at the Sunday services required of Greek 

women, especially before marriage, girls as a rule going to 

Mass only on the festivals and special occasions when it is 

obligatory to partake of the Eucharist. Elderly women are 

the most assiduous church-goers, as they are less occupied 

with housewifely duties, and their frequent appearance out 

1 It is recorded that St. Basil, having on one occasion detected a 
woman making signs from this gallery to an officiating deacon during 
the celebration of Mass,- made it a rule that the easternmost end of 
this gallery, which extends to the bema, or sacred enclosure, should 
thenceforward be screened by a curtain. 




p. Zepdji Salonica 

THE CHURCH OF ST. GEORGE, SALONICA 

Once a Pagan Temple, now a Mosque 



The Church and the Clergy 99 

of doors is not calculated to give rise to gossip. The churches 
are, however, always open on weekdays, and the younger 
women may then often be seen making their metanoia or 
obeisances before the " Holy Gates," or lighting a taper in 
front of an eikon of the Virgin Mother or a favourite saint. 



CHAPTER IX 

MONKS AND MONASTERIES 



^ 



Greek monasteries were formerly exceedingly numerous 

both in the present dominions of the Hellenic kingdom and 

in all the districts of the Ottoman Empire 

Monastedes, where Greeks formed the bulk of the popu- 
lation. The social and political conditions 
which, during the mediaeval period, induced so many men to 
seek the security and peace of the cloister had, however, in 
the course of the eighteenth century greatly changed ; and 
of the 593 monasteries existing within the confines of Greece 
on its consolidation as a kingdom in 1833, no fewer than 412 
were in the following year formally dissolved, a considerable 
number of these being found to be entirely deserted, while the 
rest had but few inmates. And so little does the conventual 
life seem to appeal to the modern Hellene of the twentieth 
century that — according to the latest report that has come to 
my notice — the number of monasteries in the Greek kingdom 
has now been reduced to twenty-four, with a population of 
ess than 200 monks. 

Of the remaining Greek monasteries only a few now possess 

their former wealth and importance, as, for instance, those 

of Phaneromene in Salamis, Galatake in 

The Convent Euboea, Pentele and Petrake in the Morea, 

Megaspelaion. ^^^ the Convent of the Megaspelaion — the 
" Great Cave " — in Achaia, founded in the 
thirteenth century by the Empress Euphrosyne, and com- 
pleted by the Emperor Constantine Palseologos. As its 
name signifies, this curious monastery is built within the 
opening of an artificially constructed cave, over 100 feet in 
height and nearly 200 in width, excavated in the side of a 
precipitous rock at an elevation of over 300 feet from the 

100 



Monks and Monasteries 101 

ground, and 3,000 feet above sea level. A great wall pierced 
with many windows forms the fagade, and on this are clustered, 
like swallows' nests, innumerable enclosed balconies and 
stairways hanging over the sheer precipice. The interior 
of this mediaeval cloister consists of a lab5n:inth of 
chambers, cells and corridors, for the most part dirty and 
dilapidated, and furnished in Oriental style with rugs and 
cushions only ; while on the walls hang, in addition to eikons 
and holy-water stoups, the antique muskets, pistols and other 
arms with which the Brethren of the Great Cave successfully 
held at bay the terrible " 'Brahim the Arab " — the Egyptian 
Commander who, in 1826, during the Greek War of Inde- 
pendence, laid siege to the monastery. The possessions of this 
convent are very considerable, especially in the province of 
Elis where the monks have large and productive estates, 
the annual revenues from these being estimated at not less 
than £3,400. A considerable proportion of the revenues 
of Galatake is derived from the royalties paid by the Anglo- 
Greek Company who have, since 1907, worked the magnesite 
mines in its domains at Limni. 

The once populous and wonderfully situated group known 
as the Meteora or " Mid- Air " Monasteries, in Western 

Thessaly, were impoverished primarily by 
^^Mon^terkJ! ' ' *^® confiscation of the estates in Roumania 

which had formed their chief support and 
later by the gradually diminished, or diverted, contributions 
of the pious laity, and have since become year by year less 
numerously, and at the same time more ignobly tenanted. For 
ever departed is that glory of the past when a prince sur- 
rendered the crown of empire to assume the cowl of St. 
Basil, when saints and scholars and statesmen were among 
the monks who occupied these hundreds of cells, who ate at 
the long tables in the pillared refectories, sang in the church, 
worked and meditated in those gardens, and were favoured 
with ecstatic visions on the green rounded summit of the pre- 
cipitous rock on which stands the great Meteoron. Approached 



102 Greece of the Hellenes 

from the west through the vineyards and mulberry trees of 
the hamlet of Kastraki, there opens out before the traveller a 
wonderful panoramic view of a vast semicircular range of 
precipices and pinnacles filled in with innumerable smaller 
pictures. About 1,000 feet above the plain are the summits 
of the cliffs on which human ingenuity has somehow 
accomplished the supernatural seeming achievement of build- 
ing a little city of isolated monasteries. And no less beautiful 
than wonderful is the scene. For not only do these precipices 
rise from out of the richest verdure and vegetation, but in 
their crevices trees and creepers root, and their heights, where 
unoccupied by buildings, are green perches from which vultures 
swoop and to which eagles soar with their prey. In one of 
the rocky nooks at the foot of this irregular semicircle of 
precipices the village nestles, and so close under the rocks 
that its upper part, in winter, never sees the sun. Taking a 
guide from the hamlet, one rides some distance up the green 
slopes amid this indescribably wonderful scene. Then, on 
foot, a rocky winding path, bordered by brushwood, overhung 
with precipice-walls hundreds of feet high, and with enchanting 
views at every turn, leads to the rear of one of the columnar 
cliffs. After a climb of a quarter of an hour a rocky platform 
is reached, looking up from which are visible, on the summit 
of a sheer precipice some 300 feet above, the walls and towers 
of the largest of these Mid-air Monasteries, " the Meteoron." 
For the ascent one has the choice of a chain of ladders 
swinging against the precipice in a stiff breeze, and a huge net 

in which one may be drawn up by means of a 
Meteoron ^°P^ ^^^ windlass. Choosing the latter, one is 

presently, after a few minutes' giddy swinging, 
deposited on the floor of the entrance and greeted with a 
courteous and kindly Kalds orisate — " Welcome ! " from the 
Brethren at the windlass. A rocky passage leads to the 
centre of the monastery, which is not built on the usual Greek 
plan of a great square of buildings, but according to the 
exigencies of the site, which have here resulted in a labyrinthine 



Monks and Monasteries 103 

irregularity possessing a charm and interest all its own. 
Its central edifice is the grand frescoed church of the Trans- 
figuration, in which is comprised a chapel built, in 1388, by the 
royal monk Joasaph, who is here represented in a rope- 
girdled white robe and brown mantle recalhng the monastic 
habit of the Western rather than that of the Eastern Church. 
Close by is the vast pillared and domed refectory dating back 
to the middle of the sixteenth century, with the hbrary 
which once boasted among its treasures precious manuscripts 
of St. Basil and St. Chrysostom. Snug and shady little courts 
and pleasant garden nooks nestle between the various edifices ; 
and from the green rounded top of the eminence one looks 
out on the extraordinary scene presented by the columnar 
precipices around, once crowned by a dozen or more great 
convents of which seven only survive. Through the opening 
of the amphitheatre is seen the Salembria — ^the ancient Pen- 
eios — winding through the verdant valley ; beyond it rise 
the peaks of Pindus ; while on the south-east the picture 
is framed by the Othrys mountains, and on the north and 
west by the long Cambunian range. 

At one period of its history, the period of its greatest 
prosperity, the rule of the Meteora Convent was as strict as 
that of the " Holy Mountain," from which its founders had 
been expelled, no woman being permitted to approach it or be 
relieved with food by its inmates, even if perishing of hunger. 
This strict rule fell, however, by degrees into disuse ; disputes 
and rivalries also arose between the various convents, which 
frequently became the scenes of grave disorders ; and from 
these and other causes resulted their gradual decadence. 

The great nucleus of monastic life in the Levant is, however, 

still to this day, as in Byzantine times, to be found in the 

" Holy Mountain," the easternmost of the 

Mountain three finger-like promontories which project 

from Thrace into the Mgeacn Sea, terminating 

in the high peak of Athos ; and it is here that Orthodox 

Monasticism as it existed in mediaeval days can best be 



104 Greece of the Hellenes 

studied. Tradition says that the first convent was founded 
here by the Empress Helen, mother of Constantine the 
Great ; whUe, under succeeding Christian Emperors, the 
entire promontory was by degrees covered with successively 
established monasteries and their domains ; and the Holy 
Mountain ere long became a famous place of pilgrimage, a 
kind of Holy Land for all the " Orthodox." Every national- 
ity professing the creed of the Eastern Church now desired 
to be represented on Mount Athos by a convent of its own ; 
and in addition to the establishments directly connected with 
the Greek Church, the Servians, Bulgarians, and Russians 
have also convents tenanted by monks of those nationalities. 
The last mentioned being now very numerous, the Holy 
Mountain has, in consequence, and during the last half 
century more particularly, become a perfect hot-bed of 
political intrigue. 

By making their submission to Mohammed II before his 
conquest of Constantinople, the monks obtained from that 
Sultan a firman securing to them all the 
Republfc'*^ privileges they had hitherto enjoyed, and 
empowering them to form themselves into 
the sort of monastic republic they still constitute. The 
Holy Mountain now comprises some twenty separate 
monasteries, the majority of which possess dependent 
priories, skete or hermitages, and chapels [exodesia) together 
with a great number of kelloi scattered about on the mountain 
sides, the retreats of solitary hermits, many of which are 
mere caves in the rocks. The rule followed in all these 
Greek Monasteries is that instituted by St. Basil, and the 
monasteries fall into two classes, the Cenobitic, in which the 
monks live in common under an Abbot, and abstain from 
flesh all the year round, and the Idiorrythmic, in which the 
convents are directed by two or more Epitropoi, or Presidents, 
and asceticism is less rigidly observed. 

Although the large estates in the Peloponnesos formerly 
belonging to the Greek monasteries were secularised by 



Monks and Monasteries 105 

Count Capo d'Istria, the first ruler of Greece after the expul- 
sion of the Turks, they still possess, in addition to their 
domains on the mountain, estates in various 

Possessions places — in Roumania, for instance, on the 
neighbouring Thracian coastlands, and in the 
opposite island of Thasos ; and the Muscovite monastery of 
Roussiko is very liberally subsidised by the Russian govern- 
ment. The Holy Fathers also add to their conventual revenues 
by the exportation of timber and other produce of their woods, 
gardens, and orchards ; and the manufacture and sale to 
pilgrims of religious pictures, rosaries, and a variety of objects 
in wood-carving constitute also a not inconsiderable source of 
revenue. Though women are not infrequently hospitably 
received and entertained in the monasteries of Greece and 
the Islands, the sex is absolutely excluded not only from the 
convents of the Holy Mountain, but from the whole 
peninsula. And this being the case, I must, in order to give 
any adequate account of this monkish republic, make use of 
the notes placed at my disposal by a friend who spent some 
weeks among these monasteries and hermitages. 

" As our little vessel, the Athene, approached the Holy 

Mountain, more and more clearly came into view, lying 

jjjg embosomed in, and overhung by green 

Convent of forests, the white or grey walls and towers 

Vatopedion. Qf castle-like buildings of princely grandeur, 
the monasteries of Mount Athos. Stepping into the dinghy, 
we were landed on a mole from which a broad paved approach, 
odoriferous with the blossoms of the orange-orchard, led up 
to the gate of the great monastery of Vatopedion. And I was 
presently delivering my letters of introduction in the marble- 
pillared, domed and frescoed porch shading the triple-gated, 
fortresslike entrance, an entrance that had, in bygone times 
more than once been assailed — without letters of introduction 
— ^by Avars and by Turks. After passing under these outer 
towers and walls, I found myself standing in a vast square 
of lofty buildings enclosing, besides umbrageous trees, 



106 Greece of the Hellenes 

numerous chapels, and other erections. Up many staircases 
iand along many corridors I was conducted to a guest-chamber, 
from the adjoining balcony of which I looked out on a ghtter- 
ing azure sea, amid an environment of gardened slopes and 
forested hills, in all the unspeakable beauty of an ^gean 
May. My delighted survey was pleasantly ended by a visit 
from one of the Epitropoi, or Presidents ; and I was again 
conducted through a labyrinth of corridors and staircases 
to a dining-room, the walls of which were decorated with 
portraits of European royalties. Small glasses of mastika, 
the native spirit, with mezaliks — the customary Oriental 
appetisers — ^were then served to the heads of the community 
and myself as we sat on the divan ; and after an interval 
of conversation we all took our places at a table sparkling 
with silver and crystal, when I enjoyed the first meal worthy 
of the name of dinner that I had eaten for weeks, my theory 
that cookery is one of the tests of civilisation being confirmed 
by the quiet and refined manners and conversation of my 
hosts. We were waited on by two serving monks ; and, 
inferior though their position was, each was addressed as 
Adelphe — ' Brother.' 

" Awaking early next morning in the chamber — large, car- 
peted, and divan-bordered, and with portrait-hung walls — 
to which my belongings had been transferred on the preceding 
evening, I was served at intervals with preserves i la grecque, 
tea d la russe, and coffee d la turque, while I wrote up my 
diary looking out on the gulf into which the river Strymon 
falls, the islanded sea of my late cruise, and the bay where 
the Athene lay rocking on the sparkling waves. The greater 
part of this, and half the next day were spent in being shown 
over the interior of the monastery and its 
Treasures surrounding outbuildings, gardens, and 
orchards. The Catholicon of Vatopedion is 
one of the most ancient, and perhaps the most splendid, of 
all the churches of the Holy Mountain, possessing reliquaries 
which, like those elsewhere seen, were naturally incomparably 



Monks and Monasteries 107 

more precious to me for the value of their material' and the 
fineness of their workmanship than on account of their 
contents. Yet these contents — a strip of the Virgin's Girdle, 
a piece of the True Cross, skulls of various saints, etc. — ^had 
certainly shown themselves, as had similar relics treasured 
in all the other monasteries, of a truly miraculous efficacy 
in obtaining for their possessors not gifts of gold and jewels 
merely, but also of fair broad lands all over the islands and 
mainland. In the great cloister between the Catholicon's 
western end and the refectory, and amid odoriferous orange 
trees, stands the Phiale, or baptismal font, under a dome 
supported by a double row of white marble columns. And 
as Vatopedion is one of the less communistic of the monas- 
teries, the wealthier Fathers — ^who are also generally the more 
learned — have private apartments, with their own private 
libraries and pictures ; and these I had the pleasure of visiting 
one after another, being thence conducted to the ancient 
library tower and shown its priceless treasures. 

" Besides the wealth of gold and silversmiths' and jewellers' 

work above referred to, many valuable examples of Byzantine 

pictorial art have been preserved in these 

PicSl* Art. convent fortresses of the Holy Mountain. 
Once seen, never to'^be forgotten are the 
divine faces that may authentically be attributed to that 
oldest of Old Masters, Manoel Panselenos of Thessalonica, 
or his pupils, who probably contributed to that revival of 
the art of Painting in Western Europe initiated by Cimabue 
and Giotto, and who was at all events the founder of a school 
of painting which — fallen, uninventive and feeble though it 
now is — ^has endured for nearly 1,000 years. Nothing that 
I could recall of all I had seen — years previously certainly — 
in the galleries and churches of Western Europe had ever 
appeared to me so divinely, and at the same time humanly 
and majestically beautiful as his faces of Christ and the Virgin, 
though one could wonder less at these surprising creations 
on reading the exquisitely beautiful prayer of this forerunner 



108 Greece of the Hellenes 

of Fra Angelico, a prayer eloquently illustrating the spirit 
in which worked the master artists and craftsmen of 
Christian monasticism in those early days of faith. ^ 

" In the Protaton, the chief church of Karyes, and probably 
the oldest in all the Holy Mountain, are to be found, still 
untouched, apparently, save by the hand of 
Karyes. time, these precious works of Pans^lenos. 
But numerous as are here the monkish studios^ 
no even approximately adequate reproduction of any of his 
divine tjrpes of womanhood were discoverable. To 
this village of Karyes I had come from Vatopedion to pay 
my respects to the Holy Synod whose members have been, 
under the Turks, the rulers of all the monastic communities 
of Athos. Very curious is the aspect of the main street 
with its low wooden houses. The little shops which border 
it are open in front like those of a Turkish bazaar, all the 
shopkeepers are long-haired and bearded monks in brown 
habits, and their stock-in-trade consists chiefly of rosaries, 
spoons with elaborately carved handles, and other articles 
difficult to describe, engravings of the various monasteries 
in extraordinary perspective, and drawn regardless of pro- 
portion. But neither in street or shop, nor in the roads and 
farms round about was a woman, young or old, to be seen, nor 
indeed any animal of the female gender. 

" Another monastery at which I spent a night very shortly 

^ " O Lord Jesus Christ, our God . . . who didst take a Body in 
the womb of the Virgin Mary for the salvation of Mankind . . . Thou 
who didst illume with the Holy Spirit the Divine Apostle and Evangelist 
Luke that he might represent the beauty of Thy most pure Mother. . . 
Do Thou . . . enlighten and direct the soul and heart and spirit of 

Thy servant N' ; guide his hands that he may be enabled worthily 

and perfectly to represent Thy image, that of Thy most holy Mother, 
and those of all the Saints, for the glory, the joy, and the embellish- 
ment of Thy most holy Church. Pardon the sins of all those who shall 
venerate these eikons, and of those who, piously casting themselves 
on their knees before them, shall render honour to the models which 
are in Heaven. Save them, I beseech thee . . . through the inter- 
cessions of Thy most holy Mother, of the illustrious Apostle and 
Evangelist St. Luke, and of all Thy Saints. Amen." 



Monks and Monasteries 109 

after leaving Karyes was that of Philotheon, charmingly 
situated about three miles inland and 1,000 feet above sea 

level. I have refrained as much as possible 
Ph^^th* °^ from specially noting the treasures of the 

monasteries, but I must give myself the 

pleasure of recalling an eikon of the Divine Mother on the 

north-east pillar of the dome of the Catholicon. It is named 

the Glykophilousa — ^the ' Sweetly Kissing,' and represents 

the Blessed Mother kissing the Blessed Child. A fresco 

also on the esonarthex, or inner vestibule, is very significant. 

It represents a monk nailed to a cross, while the Seven Deadly 

Sins shoot their arrows at him. ' Create a clean heart in me, 

O God,' is the prayer inscribed on his breast ; and an angel 

holds out to him a crown of glory. Almost every ride from 

one hospitable monastery to another seemed, indeed, more 

beautiful than the last, and this was especially the case 

with the ride from Philotheon to the Lavra, the chief in rank 

of all the twenty monasteries of the Holy Mountain. 

" Arrived at the grand pile of the Lavra — Athos towering 

to its highest peak immediately above it, and the sea less 

than a mile below — one of the monks who 
The 
Lavra. welcomed our party in the domed and 

pillared portico before the great fortified 

gate, an elderly, rather tall, and spectacled kaloyeros, 

addressed me in German, and I found that, though a Greek, 

he was a graduate of a German University. What was he 

doing here, this scientifically cultured Greek, in this remote 

monastery ? His answer was simply * Gelt fehlt.' The 

mere rumour of his having studied and taught in these great 

universities was, it appeared, enough to draw suspicion upon 

him ; and it was only by excelling most of his brethren in the 

punctilious performance of all religious duties that he was 

able to live undisturbed by petty vexations. And nowhere 

more forcibly than in this thousand-years-old monastery 

could one realise the intellectual darkness of that mediaeval 

period in which it was founded, a period during which 



110 Greece of the Hellenes 

ecclesiastics had still power to silence and persecute, almost 
to death, such men as Roger Bacon — in scientific attainments 
the greatest of all monks. It was a sad price that Father P. 
had to pay for the means of existence, though in cash he paid 
nothing, as he nothing possessed. After a long conversation 
on the divan, whence we looked down over a steep descent to 
the old tower defending the port of the monastery and thence 
across to Thasos and Samothrace, he invited me to inspect 
the treasures contained in the various buildings which divided 
the vast quadrangle into picturesque courts and nooks, trees 
being everywhere, and among them grand cedars of Lebanon, 
planted, tradition says, by the founder himself. Passing 
over these treasures, bibliographic and artistic, I will note 
only once again those divine faces of Panselenos — unequalled 
representations of the Christ which drew me to their con- 
templation on every day of my sojourn within the convent 
walls, 

" For ten days past I had been constraining myself to see 
and sympathise with all that is best in monasticism, while 
taking due account of what is worst. Recognising, however, 
the incompleteness as yet of my study of orthodox monas- 
ticism in the monasteries of the Holy Mountain, I resolved 
now to devote a day or two to visiting some of the most 
noteworthy hermits in their retreats on the heights of Athos. 
So, early on a May forenoon, I left the hospitable Lavra to 
make the ascent of the sublime peak that towers above that 
Christian community, the peak once sacred to the N5miphs 
and now dedicated to St. Anne, Mother of the Virgin, and 
hence called by the Greeks the OeoTrpofi'^Tep 
'^Jf^St-^TrinT — t^e 'Grandmother of God.' Never, I 
thought, as I waited for admission to the 
skete, or hermitage of St. Anne, had I looked on a scene of 
such combined sublimity, beauty and historical interest as 
was presented by the nook to which I presently ascended, 
enclosed as it is between three mountain sides with rocks 
and precipices rising from the thick woods among which 



Monks and Monasteries 111 

nestle the kalyvia, or huts, of some 150 hermit-monks of the 
skete, with their terraced vegetable gardens, vine and olive 
jrards, orange and fig-trees. Above towered the marble peak 
of Athos, below stretched the blue sea with Pelion projecting 
in the distance beyond, while the Thessalian Olympus 
towered, cloud-girt, over the hills of the opposite promontory 
of Longos. 

" After rest and refreshment at the skete, a monk was, in 
response to my enquiries, told off to guide me to the cave of 
one of the most famous of the Hermits of St. Anne. We 
climbed up a long ledge of rocks to a cleft bridged by a narrow 
plank, and after crossing this, the path presently opened out 
on a little terrace before a rather grand cave of which the 
front was, where necessary, built up with stones. By the 
entrance stood the hermit habited in dark blue gown and 
leathern belt, his head covered with a black veil. 

" Father Joachim, as he was now called, received us with 

profound humility, bowing almost to the rocky floor, and 

begged us to enter his abode. Its only 

Father furniture was a straw mat spread on the very 
Joachim, the ^ a j j. i j j 

Hermit. uneven rocky floor, a rude stool and sojra, 

and a plank or two. But about the centre 

of the back wall of the cave were narrow cruciform recesses 

with an eikon of the Panaghia before which burned a tiny 

lamp. Twenty years previously the hermit had been a 

Cretan Insurgent, the famous Kapitan Manolis. While 

in the world, he told us, he had desired to make a great name 

for himself. But his family being captured by the Turkish 

authorities and held as hostages, he had surrendered in order 

to save their lives, engaging to pass the rest of his days as a 

kaldyer on the Holy Mountain ; and the Turkish Governor 

had let him go. Now family and country were alike nothing 

to him ; he only desired that all should be Christians. Was 

I, he asked doubtfully, a Christian ? And would I kiss 

his eikon of the Panaghia ? Calvinistic though my upbringing 

had been, I did not hesitate to gratify the old hero, and my 



112 Greece of the Hellenes 

Greek servant had the good feeling to call himself ' Con- 
stantine,' which name he thought would sound more agreeable 
to the old recluse than the pagan ' Demosthenes ' bestowed 
upon him by his sponsors. 

" The readiness to suffer for the sake of others which had 
made Kapitan Manolis, for his country's sake, an Insurgent 
leader was pathetically manifest in Father Joachim. He 
was often ill, he said, and suffered much. But he had vowed 
to the Panaghia to suffer everything willingly for Her sake. 
He had no hope or desire but to die in this cave when it should 
be Her will. No fire ever warmed it, though the winter 
nights were sharp in these altitudes ; but his devotions and 
prostrations to the Panaghia kept him warm. A monk 
arriving from the skete with a gift of three loaves of bread. 
Father Joachim received him as a direct messenger from the 
Virgin Mother — ' Ai Panaghia, Panaghia ! ' he was con- 
tinually exclaiming. Bread and water formed his usual 
diet ; but a pot of some simple native sweetmeat had recently 
been brought to him, and of this he hospitably begged us to 
partake. Tears rose to his eyes when I deposited a small 
coin on a ledge by the eikon of the Virgin to buy oil for her 
lamp ; when we left he presented me with leaves of sweet 
smelling wild herbs ; and his farewell was ' May the Grace 
of God go with you ! ' 

" Rejoining our mules, we proceeded to the monastery of St. 
Paul, where we dined and slept ; and next morning, after 
riding down to the beach, Demosthenes and I embarked 
in a small sailing craft manned by a couple of monks, and 
having with us as fellow-passenger a hermit called Father 
Anatolios, a very silent, dismal looking, and dirty ascetic who 
was returning to his rocky hermitage. Under grandly preci- 
pitous sea-cHffs we were rowed, and then through an archway 
of rocks, where we could make out, far above us, at least one 
hermitage, or rather hermit-hole, towards the summit of the 
cliffs. Rounding a headland we contributed a loaf to the 
alms-begging basket suspended over the waves by another 



Monks and Monasteries 113 

cave-dweller, a basket containing already one or two loaves 
and a bottle of oil. Presently we landed, and spreading our 
rugs on the beach proceeded to prepare breakfast. An octopod, 

together with seaweed and shell-fish, were 
Ho?plt3it^! ^°^" secured; but though hungry enough 

not to be dainty, I longed for tea. And, 
apparently, my urgent desire telepathically affected a young 
Russian hermit who had seen us from his eyrie on the moun- 
tain-side above, for he came swiftly down to the beach, 
introduced himself as Father Paul, and hospitably begged us 
to ascend and share his breakfast and his samovar. On the 
way up I learned from him that though still but thirty-five, 
he had already been eleven years a hermit, and previously 
a monk in the Russian Skete of Serai. It was a charming 
little mountain cottage that he conducted us to, with not a 
few books about, and of, course, eikons with their attendant 
lamps. And on the balcony of his sitting-room we break- 
fasted in true communistic fashion, sharing with him our 
molluscs and partaking of his hard-boiled eggs, cheese, and 
tea d. la russe. 

" Considerably refreshed, I presently set out again, and the 
next hermit met with chanced to be Father Daniel, the 

Pnevmatikos, or Confessor, and chief of the 
Daniel Community of Hermits, whose exceedingly 

dirty hand was most reverently kissed by all 
the members of our party save myself and Demosthenes. A 
kindly looking old man of seventy-eight, white-bearded, 
malodorous, and in rags, he showed all the outward signs of 
ascetic saintliness. For twenty-two years he had lived the 
hermit life, though previously Abbot of St. Dionysios, a 
cenobitic monastery next in rank to that of St. Paul's. 
Further up the steep slopes we then climbed to the hermitage 
to which our silent fellow-traveller. Father Anatolios, was 
returning. It consisted of several little rooms half in and half 
out of the rock — ^his ' home,' and he was almost as ascetically 
dirty as the Reverend Father Daniel, melancholy, ill, and, 

8— (2385) 



114 Greece of the Hellenes 

though only forty-eight, already aged. A native of the Greek 
island of Kephallenia, and already twelve years a hermit, he 
had first been a monk at St. Paul's, where he had lately 
been on a visit. They had begged him to remain, as he was 
so evidently ill, but he had refused. Enquiring as to the 
nature of his malady, I offered to send him some drugs from 
my travelling case, but he courteously declined them, saying 
' It is better to suffer.' When he became a hermit he had 
written to his family that he was to be accounted as one dead. 
He cared for, and lived for the other world only, the present 
was nothing to him. ' I desire suffering,' he continued, 
" and look forward only to dying in solitude, and being found 
some time or other by a brother hermit or a monk of St. 
Paul's, who would bury me in my little garden with the 
rites of our Holy Church." 

" ' Would I care to visit another and a less lugubrious 
hermit ? " asked Demosthenes. ' If he can give me a cup of 
coffee, yes.' ' Malista ! — Certainly,' was the reply. So 
Excelsior ! and we mounted still higher, and not this time 
to a dwelling in the rocks but to an even more charming 
cottage than that of my Russian host of the morning, set 
likewise amid cultivated plots in rock-girt nooks and embraced 
by overclimbing vines and overshadowing fig-trees. It 
was the ' home ' of Father Sopronios, a man of forty-five, 
who had been for eighteen years a recluse, was originally 
from Rodosto on the Coast of Marmora, and had a noble 

Greek face to which corresponded an, intelli- 
Sopronlos gence incomparably greater than I had yet 

met with among these hermits. Our con- 
versation turning after a while on hermit life. Father Sopronios, 
having taken up and opened a Greek Testament, observed, 
• Much is contained in those words of Christ — " Follow Me ! " ' 
and at great length he illustrated his argument that, however 
much worldlings might object to, and even scorn the hermit- 
life, ' was it not simply a literal carrying out of this injunction 
to follow Him who spent a life vowed to poverty and 



Monks and Monasteries 115 

virginity ? ' Isaid little, but Demosthenes, who was an out- 
and-out modernist in his ideas, as well as a fervent patriot, 
concluded his objections to the hermit's arguments by 
asserting that the life of the religious recluse was of no use 
to his country, to Hellas. Father Sopronios, however, 
refused to admit that he was less of a patriot than his pagan 
fellow Hellene. ' Think you,' he cried, ' that the prayers, 
unceasing by night and day, of the hermits and monks of 
this Holy Mountain are of no avail ? Those monks and 
hermits fulfil not only a patriotic duty to their country, 
but also a philanthropic work more important perhaps than 
that of any worldling. But for our sacred rites and our 
intercessions with the Almighty, the whole world might be 
destroyed as were the Cities of the Plain ! ' It was evidently 
time to terminate the discussion, so I rose, and, after bidding a 
cordial farewell to the good Father, we again set out. 

" Of convents for women, never very numerous in Greece, 
there are but few now in existence, and these are tenanted 
chiefly by widows and elderly women deprived of family ties, 
who, living according to the Idorrhythmic rule, are supported 
by their own industry, producing very creditable work in the 
way of spinning, weaving and embroidery." 



CHAPTER X 

NATURAL PRODUCTS AND COMMERCE 

Greece being essentially an agricultural country, it is in this 
direction especially that her future prosperity must be looked 
for. As each separate province or region 
Products possesses, as elsewhere remarked, its own 
distinctive features with regard to geological 
formation and geographical position, and hence, also, with 
regard to soil, climate, and temperature, the products of the 
Greek kingdom are equally varied. In the south and west, 
in some of the islands, and especially in localities protected 
by high mountains from the cold north and north-easterly 
winds, flourish all the flowers and fruits of Italy — figs and 
oranges, lemons and citrons, grapes and peaches, and many 
others. The oranges grown in the neighbourhood of Kalamata 
at the head of the Gulf of Koron are admitted to be the finest, 
the most juicy and fragrant, of all the thin-skinned variety 
of oranges ; and in that genial clime even such a tropical 
fruit as the banana can also be sucessfuUy grown. The cur- 
rant-vine is cultivated on a very large scale in the localities 
best suited to it ; the olive-tree is a source of wealth in many 
districts ; in others cotton, silk, and tobacco are produced 
in considerable quantities ; while the valleys and plains 
everywhere are covered with productive cornfields. 

The recently acquired province of Thessaly, ceded to Greece 
by Turkey in accordance with the conference of Constanti- 
nople of 1881, consists in great part of a wide- 
of Thessaly. spreading, treeless plain, and from an agri- 
cultural point of view constitutes one of the 
most important provinces of the Hellenic kingdom. The 
greater part of the province is suitable for the cultivation of 
valuable crops, not only of cereals — ^though the Thessalian 

116 



Natural Products and Commerce 117 

grain equals the best produced in Europe — ^but also of tobacco, 
that grown in this region being considered of superior quality 
to Egyptian. Almost in the centre of the province lies the 
great Lake of Karla, the classical Boibeis, in connection with 
which the Greek Government has already initiated a vast 
irrigation scheme, the Chamber having already authorised 
the expenditure of two millions sterling on this undertaking ; 
and when this has been carried out it is confidently anticipated 
that Thessaly will become the great agricultural centre of 
Greece. 

The Peloponnesos, as well as the northern provinces, pro- 
duces large quantities of wheat, the other cereals grown in 

the country comprising barley, oats, rye, and 
Peloponnesos.^ maize, the order of rotation being (1) barley, 

(2) wheat, (3) oats. Wheat is generally sown 
after the first autumn rains, or about the end of September. 
Barley is grown by nearly all Greek farmers, for not only is 
it considered a much safer crop than wheat to cultivate, as 
it ripens in June, but the yield is also far greater. Oats, on 
the other hand, are produced only in small quantities, and 
for home consumption. A light alluvial soil is considered 
most suitable for maize, considerable quantities being pro- 
duced in the district of Lamia, at the head of the Gulf of 
Volo, where it is grown in rotation with wheat or barley. 

The grape appears to have been cultivated in Greece from 
the earliest times of which we have any record, historical or 

mythological, certain localities having from 
W^nes time immemorial been specially famed for the 

wines there produced, the sweet wines of the 
islands, such as the Samian and the Cypriote, beloved of the 
ancients, having maintained their popularity throughout the 
ages. Wine grapes are now very extensively grown both 
in the mainland and in the larger islands, and a variety of 
wines manufactured both for home consumption and export. 
Among the most widely-known and most largely consumed 
of these wines may be mentioned the red and white " Solonos," 



118 Greece of the Hellenes 

made from the delicious grapes grown on the slopes of Par- 
nassos ; the " Dekeleia," an excellent brand from the royal 
vineyards at Tatoi — less excellent, however, report says, 
since the vineyards have passed out of the royal supervision ; 
and " Tour la Reine " (locally pronounced Tourlaren), an 
agreeable light beverage from the vineyards of that name near 
Patras. From this locality comes also a kind of port called 
" Mavrodaphne," manufactured by the German Achaian 
Wine Company, which also produces other agreeable varieties 
of wine. The island of Kephallenia has also its special 
vintage, wine for sacerdotal purposes being largely produced 
and shipped by an English firm established there for nearly 
a century. Volcanic Santorin also produces a good vino 
santo, and Ithake is noted for a wine of superior quality. 
Euboea has extensive vineyards in the neighbourhood of 
Chalkis, its chief town and port, from which large quantities 
of wine are annually exported. The largest producers are, 
however, the " Hellenic Wine and Spirits Company," who are 
associated with the " Vine Products Company," an English 
firm having its headquarters in London, and has factories 
equipped with up-to-date machinery at Athens, Tripolis, 
Kalamata, and Myloi, the Kalamata brands of claret and port 
being much appreciated, and the bulk of the produce shipped 
to France. Tripolis produces a white wine of champagne 
quality, which is said to be patronised by the royal family, 
but is not very generally appreciated by European connoisseurs. 
As Greek wines in their natural state do not keep well, 
those destined for home consumption are usually resinated, 
a process which, though of very ancient origin, does not 
recommend them to a foreign palate. The resinated wine is, 
however, while cheaper, usually of better quality than the 
bottled wines, which are apt to be alcoholic, and bear trans- 
port badly, and in the country districts of the Morea and 
Central Greece this description is alone obtainable. It is, 
also, credited with certain stomachic qualities, and the 
less strongly resinated white wines are drunk in preference to 



Natural Products and Commerce 119 

others by those who have, by dint of perseverance, acquired 
a taste for them. 

Very considerable quantities of grapes are also converted 
into raisins, and exported, the lately enhanced price of the 
" sultana " variety having induced some of the Cretan growers 
to lay out new plantations with vines of this seedless grape, 
the amber clusters of which are dehcious in their natural 
state. It is also from raisins that the sweet wines of Greece 
are made, as, according to legend, were all wines until the 
Son of Bacchus acquainted mortals with the use of the fresh 
grape-juice for that purpose. 

The cultivation of the currant-grape, which now consti- 
tutes one of the most important industries of Greece, is, with 
few exceptions, carried on by peasant pro- 

^**Grap"^"* prietors, of whom no fewer than 60,000 are 
engaged in the culture of this species of vine, 
each owning on an average two-and-a-half acres of vineyard. 
The whole of the work connected with this industry is, in 
its earlier stages, of necessity performed by hand, a vast 
amount of labour being entailed in the various operations 
necessary to ensure healthy vines and an abundant crop. 
Operations on the land begin in January, and last until the 
beginning of August. First the roots of the vines are bared 
in order to " air " them, the surrounding soil being also 
piled in httle heaps between the vines to become oxygenated, 
this process occupying a couple of months or so. In March 
the " eyes " begin to appear on the vine stems, and as soon 
as the young green shoots have grown to the length of a foot 
or so, the surrounding soil is again levelled. In May, after 
the vines have blossomed, the elaborate operation of " ring- 
cutting " the stems is performed, which, by preventing the 
sap from running down to the stem, greatly enhances both 
the size and quality of the fruit, then already formed. ^ Bare 

1 This process, introduced within the last half century, appears, 
however, to increase the size of the currants at the expense of the 
flavour, and fruit which has not undergone this process is, for some 
purposes, preferred. 



120 Greece of the Hellenes 

and unsightly as the currant vineyards are in winter, as in 
other countries where the vines are planted in similar fashion, 
these luxuriant expanses of vivid yet tender green leaves 
and swaying, pole-supported branches present, in the clear 
Eastern atmosphere and under the brilliant skies of early 
June, a scene unequalled, perhaps, either in Italy, France, 
or Spain, As the leaves grow larger and more numerous 
with the advancing season, the next process is to thin the 
foliage in order that the sun's rays may now be able to 
penetrate and ripen the fruit. 

The vintage begins towards the end of July, when the ripe 
bunches are carefully removed from the vines with scissors 

and placed in baskets which, when full, are 
Vintage^" carried to the drying grounds, where the 

bunches are spread out on trays, all unripe 
or overripe berries being removed from them ; and here they 
remain to be dried by the sun and wind, no chemicals of any 
kind being used to assist the process which is usually com- 
plete in from ten to twelve days. When thoroughly dried, 
the currants are picked from their stalks and conveyed to 
the various factories where they undergo the further pro- 
cesses of cleaning and sorting into sizes, and the fruit is then 
ready for market. It is, however, only within the last fifteen 
years that these latter processes have preceded exportation, 
cleaning factories having in 1899 been established at Patras, 
which has become the chief centre of the export trade in cur- 
rants. ^ There are now at this seaport quite a number of 
these factories belonging to both Greek and English firms, 
the apparatus at present being of native manufacture, though 
gas engines of British make still supply the power. The 
dry process alone is employed in cleaning the fruit, as thus 
treated the natural bloom of the currant is preserved, and it 
also keeps in good condition for a much longer period than 
would be the case if water were used. As many women and 

^ Corinth is no longer, as formerly, the centre of the currant trade, 
another outlet for which is now Aigion. 



Natural Products and Commerce 121 

girls as men are engaged in the carrying out of the various 
details connected with the currant industry, girls being em- 
ployed chiefly in the lighter branches of the work. But 
though there is a ten hours' day for all, there is a great dis- 
parity in the wages earned respectively by the sexes, for 
while the men receive as much as five, six, or even seven 
drachmcB per day, women are paid but two drachmce, and 
girls only one-and-a-half. During the busier months the 
work is carried on at high pressure, and by night as well as 
by day shifts, double wages being paid to those undertaking 
the former. 

Though at the present day exceedingly prosperous, the 
currant industry has experienced many vicissitudes, among 
which vine diseases have not been usually the most serious, 
though during the years between 1851 and 1836 a disease 
called oidium destroyed the vineyards throughout the king- 
dom, and in 1892 the vines in many districts were attacked 
by a species of white blight, called in Greece peronospora, 
which again recurred in 1897 and 1900. Owing to over- 
production and other causes, the currant-growers also found 
themselves between 1891 and 1894 in evil case, the lowest 
prices of the century being only obtainable for their produce. 
With the object not only of eliminating the surplus product 
and of improving the quality of the fruit, but also of finding 
fresh markets and obtaining higher prices for it, there was 
formed early in the present century a financial association 
somewhat cumbrously styled " The Privileged 
Company^^ Company to Protect the Production and Com- 
merce of Currants," with a capital of £800,000. 
Steps were taken by this society towards the establishing of 
the industry on a sounder basis than had hitherto been 
attempted ; and although a good deal of opposition was at 
first experienced, it was but short-lived. This company was 
empowered by the Hellenic Government to take over from 
the " Currants Bank," estabhshed in 1899, the rights of col- 
lecting in kind the currant dues at the rate of 40 per cent. 



122 Greece of the Hellenes 

on exported fruit grown in the Ionian Islands, and of 35 per 
cent, on that produced in and exported from other parts of 
the kingdom against a fixed annual payment to the Treasury 
of four million drachmce, or £160,000. It also undertook to 
buy from the growers at fixed prices any currants they might 
offer for sale, and not to re-sell them below certain stated 
prices — \Q{y drachmce per thousand Venetian pounds if dis- 
posed of within the year in which the purchase was made, 
and 200 drachmce at any other period, the Company being 
bound under heavy penalties not to export the residue. In 
order consequently to convert this residue into other articles 
of commerce, the " Greek Wine and Spirits Company " was 
founded in 1906, and has been most successful, a dividend of 
15 per cent, having five years later been earned for the share- 
holders. The Privileged Company was also required by the 
Government to provide storehouse accommodation for at 
least 175,000,000 Venetian pounds of currants, and to store 
therein free of all charges whatsoever any consignments 
from growers, to whom 80 per cent, of the value of such con- 
signments should be payable at an interest not exceeding 6 
per cent, per annum ; the growers on their part paying the 
Company in return for all these advantages seven drachmce 
per thousand Venetian pounds of currants stored. 

With the view of at the same time restricting the output 
— which, in specially fruitful years, greatly embarrassed the 

Company — it had also been made illegal to 
Production °^ create new currant vineyards ; and, as a 

further measure of precaution, it was subse- 
quently proposed to use for other purposes some of the less 
productive plantations, the grower being duly compensated 
for loss thereby incurred. A second agreement was, there- 
fore, in 1909, entered into by the Company and the Govern- 
ment, under which the former was empowered to contract a 
loan up to £500,000, secured by an assignment to trustees of 
the charges paid by the growers to the Company, the pro- 
ceeds to be employed solely for the compensation of such 



Natural Products and Commerce 123 

vineyard-owners as would consent to deracinate all or part 
of their currant vines, the amount to be fixed by private 
agreement, the owner to ask what he pleased, but the Com- 
pany being bound to pay him a sum equivalent to at least 
£13 per acre. This scheme has already resulted in the up- 
rooting of over 6,000 acres of currant vines. But while the 
growers have done fairly well of late years, the Company to 
which their increased prosperity is chiefly due has been less 
successful, and may, indeed, at times be entitled to regard 
itself rather as a philanthropic than a profit-earning 
institution. 

Of the three and thirty different varieties of olive no fewer 
than thirty are, it is averred, cultivated within the limits of 

Greece, and the grey-green foliage of the 
Growing olive tree greets the eye alike in the north 

and south of the kingdom, on island as on 
rocky peninsula, in valley as on hillside ; and in the opinion 
of experts nowhere is the tree found in better condition 
than in Greece, notwithstanding the lack of careful cultivation. 
Corfu and Zante, Kephallenia, Crete and Euboea also produce 
in favourable years immense crops of this edible, a consider- 
able proportion of which, prepared for table, are consumed 
in the country and exported, a much larger quantity being 
converted into the olive oil of commerce, of which, in a year 
of abundance, over £500,000 worth is exported from the 
country generally, the export tax levied on this commodity 
forming an important annual contribution to the national 
exchequer. Olive harvests, however, vary greatly, two out 
of five being, according to approximate calculation, good, 
and two out of seven exceptionally abundant. The amount 
of oil contained in the fruit differs, some varieties being 
richer in this respect than others ; the soil and the period and 
method of gathering also affect the yield of oil, a dry and 
well-drained soil being most favourable. Large quantities 
are picked when green for pickling, and the finer kinds of the 
ripe fruit destined for table use will be picked by hand in 



124 Greece of the Hellenes 

order to avoid bruising. The greater quantity are, however, 
gathered in primitive fashion, a cloth being spread on the 
ground and the ohves beaten down into them with long 

switches. This harvest is not begun until 
Harvest^ the autumn, and extends over many weeks, 

a considerable amount of the labour connected 
with it being performed by the women and children. In 
Crete the gathering of the olive harvest is, indeed, the gayest 
time of the year for the women and girls, and especially for 
the latter, as the usual restraints imposed on maidens are at 
that season laid aside, and they enjoy, in addition to the 
open-air work, the little social gatherings customary in the 
evenings. The 'earnings of the harvesters, which are paid in 
kind, are, however, but small, being only two-sevenths of 
the 5rield of oil from the olives which each one has gathered, 
though in abundant seasons, when pickers are in great demand, 
their earnings may amount to a third of the yield. But the 
hours of labour are long, and when carried on, as it must 
often be, in rainy weather, the work is very fatiguing. 

Greece has also been found to possess exceptionally favour- 
able conditions for cotton-growing ; and as the plant appears 

to thrive wherever planted, it has always 
Growing: been grown locally in small quantities, 

though without much regard to quality. On 
the creation, however, of a Ministry of Agriculture in 1911, 
special attention was directed to the cultivation of cotton 
by the first holder of the portfolio of this department, 
M. Benachi (a member of the Alexandria firm of Davies, 
Benachi & Co.), who had long devoted his attention to the 
promotion of cotton cultivation in Egypt. The Egyptian 
variety being proved to be the most suitable for the soil of 
Hellas, its cultivation was counselled and encouraged by the 
Government, and the immediate results more than surpassed 
all expectations, the samples sent to Egypt being pronounced 
equal to, and realising even higher prices than the finest 
cotton grown in that country. A market for Greek cotton 



Natural Products and Commerce 125 

was also at once found in the United Kingdom. The immedi 
ate demand for cotton of this quality called for the additional 
planting of some 5,000 acres ; and it is expected that 250,000 
acres of Greek land will very shortly be converted into cotton 
plantations, the Government being prepared to guarantee to 
cultivators the fullest possible support in disposing of their 
crops, and markets not being far to seek. Some of these 
plantations are on lands in Boiotia, leased from the Lake 
Copais Company who own some 60,000 acres of reclaimed 
marsh, let in great part to cultivators. ^ Others are in 
Thessaly, where the best kinds of cotton are being cultivated 
with great success. Cotton growing has, indeed, from all 
accounts, a great future before it in Thessaly, where its culti- 
vation on a large scale would, it is confidently anticipated, 
bring about important economic changes in that essentially 
agricultural province. 

Tobacco has for many years past been grown to a consider- 
able extent in Greece, the soil in certain districts — as, for 
instance, Argos, Agrinion, Naupha, and parts 
Gr°ow?ng ^^ Thessaly— being suitable for the cultiva- 
tion of a particular variety of this plant ; and 
successful experiments have also of late years been made by 
the Agricultural Society of Greece on its large estates in 
Phthiotis with seed from the famous tobacco-growing dis- 
tricts of Turkey. The greater proportion of the exports have 
hitherto gone to Egypt, where it has long been largely used 
in conjunction with Turkish to produce the well-known 

1 This enterprising company has carried out the great drainage 
schemes inaugurated by the prehistoric Minyae at Orchomenos and 
completed by Alexander of Macedon. Left to its own devices during 
many centuries, the lake had again encroached on the surrounding 
country. In 1883, however, drainage operations were again on foot, 
and this time by a French company, the work being finally achieved 
by the present British company. Thousands of acres of malaria- 
breeding marshland have now been converted into farmlands and 
pasturage, model farms have been established under the direction of 
the company's agents, and a neighbouring railway provides the means 
of transport for the produce of the district. • 



126 Greece of the Hellenes 

" Egyptian blend." The demand for Greek tobacco is, how- 
ever, largely increasing in other directions. Germany, 
Austria, and Italy have of late years sent large orders, many 
German firms having permanent agents in the country for 
its purchase, while the poorest qualities of leaf find a ready 
market in Holland and Belgium, where they are used for the 
manufacture of cheap cigars. During the last three years 
Greek tobacco has been annually exported to the value of 
from £480,000 to ;£520,000, very considerable quantities 
being also consumed at home, where it is sold at a very low 
price and protected by prohibitive duties of 180 per cent, 
on foreign tobaccos. The leaf when gathered is purchased 
from the various growers by middlemen, and by them con- 
signed to a depot where it is examined by experts and sorted 
according to quality, before being finally dried and packed. 
The tobacco is cut in the Government factories where the 
tax of five drachmcB per oka ^ on the cut leaf is collected, a 
further charge of forty leptd per oka being made for the use 
of the machinery, etc., the cutters being allowed to employ 
their own workmen. A tax is also imposed on the paper 
used for cigarette making, which is one of the Government 
monopolies, this being purchased as required, the cutters 
being obliged to take as much as should be necessary to con- 
vert into cigarettes the amount of leaf cut. But though a 
Government monopoly, these cigarettes are sold at a moderate 
price, and are pronounced excellent by those who have 
acquired a taste for the " mild " tobacco of Greece — a taste, 
it is said, only acquired in process of time. 

Silkworm culture and the manufacture of silk tissues are 

now receiving considerable attention at the hands of those 

desirous of developing this industry, long pur- 

Ci^ture ^"^^ ^^ *^^ country in somewhat desultory 

fashion. A Sericultural Society has, since the 

beginning of the century, been doing useful work, and has 

now some forty branches with a membership of over 1,500. 

1 The oka is equal to about 2f avoirdupois. 



Natural Products and Commerce 127 

Among other helpful measures taken to place the industry 
upon a pa5ring basis nurseries have been established for the 
cultivation of mulberry trees which are supplied gratis to all 
engaged in silkworm rearing ; and exhibitions of both raw 
and manufactured silk are occasionally held in the capital 
under the patronage of the royal family. 

The mineral wealth of Greece appears to have been to a 

certain extent exploited at a very early period, and mining 

is still a profitable industry. The chief ores 

^i-®^, f "^ and raw materials now produced include iron 
Marble , . ., ^i , , . 

Quarries. ^^^ i^oii pyrites, copper, lead, and zmc, man- 
ganese and magnesite, emery and chromite ; 
while from the various marble quarries at Dionysios, Mani, 
and Paros on the mainland, and in the islands of Sk5n:os, Tenos, 
and Euboea are obtained every species of white and coloured 
marble, the black variety being also represented. A number 
of companies, native and foreign, have for many years past 
been engaged in exploiting the mineral resources of the Greek 
kingdom. One of these, known as " Grecian Marbles, Ltd.," 
a British firm with a capital of £200,000, owns all the more 
valuable marble quarries, including those at Paros, famous 
from ancient times for the flesh-coloured variety. All these 
quarries had indeed been to a certain extent previously 
worked, and more especially those supplying the Pentelican 
marble used for the Parthenon as also for so many other monu- 
ments of the classic period. The mines of Lavrium, situated 
at the southern end of the peninsula of Attica, and first 
worked, it is supposed, by the Phoenicians, have since 1875 
engaged the attention of three miriing companies, two French 
and one Greek. For many years all these concerns were 
exceedingly flourishing, owing to the profits derived not 
only from the abundant mineral resources of this region, but 
also from the accumulated refuse from the ancient workings. 
The latter are, however, now exhausted, and the output of 
lead has diminished ; but as that of iron has increased, both 
the French companies still appear to find the industry fairly 



128 Greece of the Hellenes 

profitable, though less than half as many workmen are now 
employed. Government supervision as regards the workmen 
engaged in quarrying is fairly severe, and not only do the 
precautions taken to ensure their safety hamper the operations 
of the Company, but the compensation provided for by State 
regulations in case of injury or death seriously affect the 
profits of the shareholders, there being no fixed scale accord- 
ing to the nature of the injury. The Government, however, 
pays half the pension of a workman permanently disabled, 
as also half the pensions granted to the widows of those killed 
in the quarries. 

Fishing is carried on to any considerable extent only in 
the Gulf of Lepanto and in the neighbourhood of the Piraeus, 
whence the capital is supplied. The quality of the fish 
caught on the west coast is, however, reputed to be far 
superior to that of the Bay of Salamis, and Mesolonghi 
supplies the Levant with one of its most prized mezaliks, or 
hors d'oeuvres, the dried fish-roe called botdrgo elsewhere 
referred to. Greek fishermen, however, pursue their calling 
on all the shores of the ^gean, European and Asiatic, 
where the red gleam of their braziers of pitch-pine chips may 
be seen at night in every bay and round every little cape or 
headland. 

Sponge-fishing constitutes an important industry for the 

inhabitants of the islands of Hydra, Spetsai, and Aigina, as 

well as for the men of the little coast towns 

Fishing ^^ Trikeri on the shores of the Gulf of Volo, 

and Hermione and Kranidi in Argolis. In 

Hellenic waters the sponges have become almost exhausted, 

and the fishing grounds now chiefly frequented are those of 

the African coasts, extending from Tunis to Alexandria, 

the best sponges being found in the neighbourhood of the 

latter port ; and though fishing within the three-mile limit 

is forbidden by the Turkish and Egyptian Governments, 

the prohibition is little regarded. Sponge-fishing is also 

carried on in Italian waters, in the Gulf of Taranto, for 



Natural Products and Commerce 129 

instance, and off the coasts of Sicily, Sardinia, and the Lipari 
Isles. About three-fifths of the population of the islands 
and coast towns whence the divers come support themselves 
and their families by this industry which is pursued for 
about six months of the year, the boats leaving port on 
" Clean Monday " — the first day of Lent — and returning 
towards the end of October, The headquarters of this 
industry would now seem to be Aigina, where the International 
Sponge Importers' Company have a factory managed by an 
English agent ; and from this island from forty to fifty 
boats sail out every spring, each manned by a crew of about 
twenty sailors and divers. The sponge-fishers of Kranidi 
and Hermione carry out their operations chiefly by means 
of the drag-net ; but as a rule the diving apparatus is em- 
ployed, a method which demands a much greater outlay, as 
each complete diver's suit costs about ;^80. The boats of 
the sponge-fishing fleet also vary considerably in build, and 
fall into three classes, carr5ning respectively ten, six, and 
three or four divers among their crews. 

It is usual for the divers to remain below for fifteen minutes 
at a time at a depth of twenty fathoms, and for a propor- 
tionately shorter time at greater depths. 
Divers After serving a year or two as sailors in the 

fishing-boats, a youth at the age of from 
eighteen to twenty begins his career as a diver, and, with 
good luck, may pursue it until middle age, by which time he 
wiU have earned sufficient to purchase a plot of land and 
settle down as a cultivator, or, it may be, to become himself 
a shipowner. The calling of a diver is not hereditary in thie 
communities from which members of this profession are drawn, 
but the mekanikos, as he is locally termed, is esteemed a good 
match by parents of marriageable daughters in the fishing 
towns and villages. The profits of the season's industry are 
shared by the fishers on co-operative principles, those of the 
first-class boats being divided into ninety shares, of which 
thirty fall to the skipper, who is not unfrequently also the 
9— (2385) 



130 Greece of the Hellenes 

owner, five to each diver and one to each sailor, the divers 
usually receiving before sailing a certain sum on account. 
There seem, however, to be no hard and fast rules in this 
respect, and both divers and sailors may be entitled to a larger 
proportion of the profits of a cruise. A diver on a first-class 
boat makes, perhaps, during a successful season some £75, 
on a vessel of the second-class £50, and hardly less on a third- 
class boat ; and with the usual Hellenic thrift he will either 
invest his savings in land, or in building a boat for himself. 
Lack of the necessary capital not infrequently, however, 
leads the sponge-fishers to have recourse to usurers who 
charge some 25 per cent, on the money borrowed to equip 
and provision a boat, though arrangements have of recent 
years been made by which the masters are enabled to obtain 
for this purpose advances at 4 per cent, from the National 
Bank of Greece. During the sponge-fishing season two small 
vessels belonging to the Greek Navy are sent to the African 
coast to serve as hospital ships, and a hospital for disabled 
divers has been built at Tripoh by Queen Olga. Hitherto 
no adequate Government regulations have existed for the 
control of the fisheries, and owing to the little care exercised 
in the use of the diving-dress a very considerable proportion 
of the sponge-fishers unfortunately become, after a few years, 
either partially or completely paralysed, and from thirty to 
forty deaths are said to occur every season from this cause 
alone among those engaged in this industry. 

Owing to their natural aptitude for commerce as also to 
their hereditary predilection for a sea-faring life, the Greeks 
have secured a great proportion of the trade of the Levant. 
All the chief ports of the Mediterranean, Mgean and Baltic 
seas contain important mercantile colonies belonging to this 
nationality, many of the trading firms being exceedingly 
wealthy. In some of the Mgean islands almost every house- 
holder is owner, or part owner, of a vessel, a large number of 
the smaller craft engaged in the coasting trade hailing from 
the Cyclades and Ionian Islands. A considerable proportion 



Natural Products and GDmmerce 131 

of the shipping on the Danube and Pruth rivers is also 
owned by the islanders of Ithaca and Kephallenia ; and 
Greek vessels of considerable tonnage carry cargoes of 
grain from Russian to Mediterranean ports. As many 
as 1,364 vessels are now registered under the Hellenic flag, 
of which 275 are steamers, the seven principal companies 
owning among them as many as forty liners, the Piraeus and 
Hermoupolis in the island of Syra being the chief seats of the 
carrying trade. 



CHAPTER XI 

RURAL LIFE AND PURSUITS 

But although Greece is, as previously remarked, essentially 
an agricultural country, the life of a small cultivator appears 

to offer few attractions to the Greek youth of 
Peasa^n^ ^^^ present day, unless he can see in it an 

opening for enterprise and speculation. It is 
consequently only those born and bred on the soil and chained 
to it by circumstances who are content with a rustic life, 
and the Albanians make better farmers than the Hellenes. 
The Thessalian peasant certainly, who appears to be a born 
agriculturist, prefers to see his family settled on the land 
tilled by his progenitors from time immemorial ; and given 
the better conditions that must almost necessarilj'^ be the 
result of the new government schemes for the benefit of 
Thessaly, its now exiled sons might be induced to return to 
their native province, which is at present but thinly populated. 
Yet even in Thessaly, as elsewhere, if a peasant proprietor 
or tenant farmer can dispense with the services of one or 
more of his usually large family, his sons gladly quit the 
homestead in pursuit of more lucrative and, it may be, more 
congenial emplo5niient. Endowed with a remarkable degree 
of enterprise, perseverance, and address, and aided by the 
educational advantages at his disposal, a Greek peasant lad 
may adopt almost any career for which he deems himself to 
have a vocation ; and one hears of cases in which, while one 
son of a peasant family has been content with the position 
of a skilled artisan or a domestic servant, his brother will 
have either made his fortune in commerce or have become a 
distinguished member of one of the learned professions. 

132 



Rural Life and Pursuits 

It is, however, foreign emigration that is robbing Hellas 
of her hardy peasantry, and this constitutes one of the most 

serious problems with which the Hellenic 
Emigration. Government is at the present day confronted. 

For Greece has no surplus population, and, 
if the country is to prosper, the services of every able-bodied 
man and boy are needed for the proper development of its 
natural resources. Weekly emigrant steamers carry large 
numbers to Western lands and bring but few back, and 
every year the number of voluntary exiles increases by leaps 
and bounds, with the consequence that many agricultural 
districts are left without labourers to till the soil. The 
number of Greek emigrants who betook themselves to the 
United States alone in the year 1900 was already nearly 
4,000 ; and in ten years' time from 38,000 to 40,000 were 
annually arriving, nearly all of these being youths and men 
under thirty years of age, the proportion of women accom- 
panying them not exceeding 1| per cent. The emigrants 
appear to come from every part of the country, from the 
fertile valleys of the western Peloponnesos no less than from 
less favoured regions ; and agricultural labourers are becom- 
ing exceedingly scarce in many parts. In other departments 
of labour also the lack of hands is being seriously felt, a large 
number of Greek miners having left their emplo5mient with 
the French Mining Company of Lavrium to seek their fortune 
beyond the seas. 

Though the Corfiot of to-day would rather starve at home 
than thrive abroad, the islanders generally, both of the Ionian 
and iEgean seas, display a more enterprising spirit, and cer- 
tain of them contribute largely to the annual total of emi- 
grating Greeks. Euboea's sons are, it appears, deserting 
their native isle in ever-increasing numbers. The youth of 
the Ionian Islands of Ithake and Kephallenia sail away, not 
only to the United States, but also to South Africa, and 
these, it appears, seldom return again save for the two years 
of their miUtary service. The inhabitants of Crete also. 



134 Greece of the Hellenes 

both Christian and Moslem, have, since the beginning of the 
century, left their troubled isle in great numbers for various 
destinations. 

From the Cyclades generally, however, the emigration is, 
as it always has been, rather in the direction of the great 
cities of the Levant, than to the El Dorados 
Wanderers ^^ ^^^ West, and is generally of a more tem- 
porary character, the men of certain of these 
Mgeaxi Islands going as marble masons to Alexandria and 
other places for periods of two or three years only. Their 
wives in many cases resort meanwhile to Athens, Smyrna, 
or Constantinople, where they command high wages as para- 
mdnas, or wet nurses ; and the girls from these islands are 
always in great demand as cooks and housemaids in foreign 
as well as in Greek households. It must be admitted that 
the Greek peasant has often had a strong motive for aban- 
doning his patris and seeking fortune in the New World. 
Earning at home only the meagre wage of from three to 
four drachma a day, the prospect held out to him of obtaining 
nearly treble that amount proves an almost irresistible temp- 
tation to a labouring man. As a rule, one son of a family 
first makes the venture, and, should he prosper, he will send 
money home to enable a brother to join him. Living as 
frugally in the States as he did in the East, he saves the 
greater part of his daily wage to remit to those dependent 
on him at home. A certain proportion naturally, after cross- 
ing the Atlantic, fail to realise their expectations, and instead 
of finding congenial and profitable emplojnnent are compelled 
to accept the lowest forms of labour in the great cities of the 
West, and finally return home poorer than when they left. ^ 
The Greek, however, being very adaptable, and, as a rule, 
devoid of any false pride, usually can turn his hand to any 

1 M. Botassio, Consul-General for Greece at New York, reported 
recently that an alarming number of the Greek emigrants in the United 
States are in a condition of pitiable poverty and distress, and laid the 
blame for this state of affairs on the emigration agents. His statements 
are, however, characterised by other Greeks as exaggerated. 



Rural Life and Pursuits 135 

work that may present itself, and consequently seldom fails 
ultimately to fall on his feet. 

Notwithstanding the foundation of the various Agricultural 
Colleges and Centres above referred to, and the attempts 

which have for many years past been made 
Primitive to introduce into general use improved agri- 
Cultivation, cultural implements, very little change is yet 

discoverable in the methods of the Greek 
cultivator, save, of course, on estates personally managed 
by foreigners or by Greeks imbued with modern ideas. 
Machinery is still almost unknown, and the implements of 
husbandry in common use are generally of a most primitive 
character, entailing much hand labour, and resulting in con- 
siderable waste. Arable land is still in many localities, as 
in Pelasgian times, broken by a clumsy, one-handled plough 
drawn by a yoke of oxen, and threshing is carried out by the 
farmers' daughters with the help of an implement dating back 
to a period equally remote — two heavy pieces of wood, namely, 
joined in the form of a horseshoe and studded on the under 
side with a number of rough flints. Or, in some parts, a 
team of horses or oxen is driven round and round the grain- 
strewn threshing-floor, the uncrushed ears that may remain 
being beaten out with sticks by the women and children, 
who winnow the grain by throwing it into the air with wooden 
shovels. Agriculture is, consequently, notwithstanding the 
fertility of the soil in the majority of the Greek provinces, 
and the favourable conditions which prevail in those of the 
south especially, in a more or less backward state. 

The conditions under which the agricultural population 
live vary considerably according to locality and to the system 

of land tenure obtaining in the special dis- 
Peasantoy' trict. In the southern provinces of Hellas 

the tillers of the ground are chiefly peasant 
proprietors ; in others they are hereditary tenants under 
what is known in Europe as the metayer system ; and there 
is also a class of agricultural labourers who enter into yearly 



136 Greece of the Hellenes 

or half-yearly contracts with the landowners, no agricultural 
day-labourers being available in Greece. The first-named 
class of agriculturists are by far the most prosperous. In 
the Peloponnesos, where they are mostly grouped in villages, 
the farmsteads present an appearance of considerable com- 
fort, being built of stone with roofs of red tiles, standing amid 
gardens festooned about with vines, and surrounded by fruit 
orchards and olive groves. In Eastern Thessaly there have 
also existed from time immemorial a number of so-called 
" Free Villages " {elevtherochona) or " Head Villages," [kephalo- 
choria) which, since the cession of that province to Greece 
thirty years ago, have recovered their former prosperity. 
Here the farm-houses are usually of two stories, substantially 
built of stone, and enclosed within a walled courtyard. Tables, 
chairs, and even bedsteads are not unknown luxuries among 
their furnishings. Pictures hang on their whitewashed walls, 
and the living-room will be found to contain a large assort- 
ment of brightly-burnished copper pans, and the storeroom 
an ample supply of native wine, oil, grain, and other 
home-grown provisions. 

In the great grain-growing plains of central Thessaly the 
agricultural lands are divided into large estates, owned for 

the most part by absentee landlords who 
System^^*^ reside at a distance and are represented by 

their agents. Here the land is cultivated 
chiefly on the metayer system above mentioned. Under 
this system the owners supply the seed grain to their tenants 
and pay one-third of the land-tax, receiving as rent a certain 
proportion of the produce, but making no contribution to- 
wards the cost of cultivation. In Italy and France the 
peasants working under this system are fairly prosperous ; 
but in the East these hereditary cultivators have hitherto 
laboured under considerable disadvantages and are for the 
most part poor. Their dwellings present a pitiable aspect, 
being wretched huts constructed of mud-plastered wattle, of 
one story only, with unglazed windows, and limited as to 



Rural Life and Pursuits 137 

accommodation. The condition of this section of the rural 
population is now, however, receiving the serious attention 
of the Government, which has lately been taking steps to 
increase peasant proprietorship in these regions by dividing 
certain Crown lands into small holdings, and also by the 
purchase of suitable estates for the same purpose. A large 
proportion of these new holdings have been utilised for the 
settlement, on very favourable terms, of the numerous families 
of destitute refugees from the agricultural districts devastated 
during the course of the late war. It is now proposed to 
acquire by degrees more of the now privately-owned estates 
and to settle also on them, as peasant proprietors, the tenants 
by whom they are now cultivated under the metayer system ; 
and many large landowners have offered to convert their 
property into small holdings on condition of obtaining fair 
prices in return. A financial institution termed the " Thes- 
salian Fund " has already been formed, and a Government 
scheme drafted by means of which bond fide peasant farmers 
will be enabled to acquire lots by means of a system of deferred 
payments. And it is confidently anticipated that, by this 
means, and given a few favourable seasons, a more prosperous 
period may be inaugurated, and that the great plains of Thes- 
saly may eventually become the granary of the country, 
which now requires large importations of foreign wheat. 

Farm labourers are usually paid a monthly wage at the 
rate of from thirty to forty drachmce, and are provided also 
with food and lodging by their employer. In 
Wages. neighbourhoods where emigration has pro- 
duced a scarcity of labour much higher wages 
are obtainable, and in harvest -time a reaper may receive, in 
addition to his food, from 3s. to 3s. 6d. per day. Women 
and children, generally speaking, work in the fields only at 
harvest -time, when hands are scarce. They are always paid 
by the day, and at such seasons earn fairly good wages. The 
food supplied consists chiefly of bread, sheeps'-milk cheese, 
and phasouldkia, or white beans, together with a daily 



138 Greece of the Hellenes 

modicum of wine or native spirit, and occasionally a little 
lamb or mutton. 

In some districts, as, for instance, in Thessaly and near 
Mesolonghi, considerable quantities of rice are grown on the 

low-lying lands, and here, as on marshy lands 
a^^ContimptfJn. ge^e'^ally throughout the country, malarial 

fevers are very prevalent. The disease is 
also disseminated by the mosquito which breeds in these 
marshes ; and such a scourge has it become that the whole 
population of certain districts may be found affected by it, 
the death rate among children from this cause being very high. 
Aguish fevers are, indeed, everjrwhere common among the 
peasant class, who appear to take few precautions against 
them beyond imbibing strong spirits. Very large doses of 
quinine are, however, had recourse to as remedies, followed 
in the convalescent stage by tonics composed of arsenic and 
strychnine. The Government having made the sale of quinine 
a monopoly, it is now procurable at a third of its former 
price. Consumption, however, makes greater ravages than 
even fever among the population generally, and even in 
Athens, which is reputed the healthiest town in Greece, 19 
per cent, of deaths are due to phthisis. The extraordinary 
prevalence of this terrible disease appears to be in no way due 
to the climate, but rather to the extreme carelessness of the 
people in matters of hygiene and to their . disregard of all 
medical instructions with reference to isolation. For this, as 
for other infectious diseases, hospitals have hitherto been sadly 
lacking, notwithstanding the fear of infection usually dis- 
played by the Greeks generally, the only hospital for con- 
sumptives to be found in Athens being that built a few years 
ago by the munificence of Madame Schliemann, the widow 
of the famous archaeologist. 

As the peasant proprietors produce on their holdings, in 
addition to what they may raise for sale, all the wool, flax, 
and cotton required for the family clothing and for house- 
hold purposes, the various processes of their manufacture 



Rural Life and Pursuits 13^ 

will be carried out by the women of the family. After the 
sheep-shearing, which is always done by hand, the wool is 
bleached and spun, and the yarn woven into 
IndusSfes cloth on the primitive loom to be found in 
every homestead, however humble. The flax 
and cotton are also prepared according to time-honoured usage, 
the former being beaten by hand, ^ while the cotton-pods 
are put through a small hand machine called the manganos, 
which turns two rollers in contrary directions, separating the 
fibre from the seed. The instrument next used is the toxevein, 
a large bow made from a curved branch five or six feet long, 
the two ends of which are connected with a stout string. 
The cotton is laid loosely on this string which is made to 
vibrate by being struck with a mallet, producing a monotonous 
but not unmusical sound. This process detaches the par- 
ticles of cotton, and it is now ready to use as wadding for 
the paplomata, large quilts which, with a sheet tacked to 
the underside, form all the winter bed-covering of the lower 
orders throughout the Levant. The mattresses are also 
usually stuffed with cotton, and the palliasses with maize 
husks. 

If, however, the cotton is to be converted into yarn for 
weaving, it is twisted into a loose coil as it leaves the 
toxevein, wound round the distaff, and spun. When the 
yarn has been dyed, or bleached, according to the use to 
which it is to be put, the women and girls set to work at 
the hand-looms and weave it into strong durable calico, or, 
in conjunction with wool or raw silk, into brightly-striped 
stuffs for dresses and household purposes. A certain pro- 
portion of the cotton and wool will also be reserved for 
stocking-knitting ; and it is often very pleasing to watch the 
graceful motions and picturesque poses of the younger women 

^ In the Greek folk-tales and songs dealing with mediaeval and 
earlier periods, when spinning, weaving, and embroidery constituted 
the chief occupation of the women of a noble household, the flax-beater 
invariably occupies the lowest social position. 



140 Greece of the Hellenes 

and girls as, standing on their rustic little balconies, they 
send the spindle whirling into courtyard or village street 
while twisting the thread for this purpose. The knitting is 
done with five fine, curved pins having ends like crochet- 
hooks, and the stocking is always made inside out. This 
method produces a close, even stitch, and the work is extremely 
durable. The old women usually undertake this part of the 
household task, and with stocking in hand and the " feed " 
of the yarn regulated by a brass pin fastened to their bodices, 
they sit in their doorways for hours together, gossiping with 
neighbours, telling fairy-tales to the boys and girls, or croon- 
ing to the babies some of the many charming lullabies which 
exist in Greek folk-literature. 

Silk-culture, in its preliminary stages at least, forms to a 
great extent a home industry, when it is undertaken chiefly 
by the women and girls of a household, whom it keeps fully 
occupied during the spring and early summer months. The 
long, switch-like branches of the pollarded mulberry-trees are 
gathered fresh twice daily and laid over the trays containing 
the caterpillars ; and all the tedious and laborious details 
connected with the silkworm nurseries are duly and carefully 
carried out in order to keep the little workers healthy, and 
thus ensure the best results. 

Owing to the mountainous character of the Greek kingdom 
the forest area is very considerable, being estimated at one- 
fifth of the entire surface of the mainland, 
of Greece ^ ^^^' ^^ ^^ ^^^ neighbouring Balkan States, it 
is chiefly the property of the State, though 
certain portions are held in common by the inhabitants of 
adjacent villages and townships, who enjoy traditional rights 
of pasturage and woodcutting over such areas. In the past 
the forests have not only suffered from neglect, but also from 
wholesale destruction by fire, sometimes accidentally caused 
in dry weather, but more frequently wilfully, by the shepherds 
who, when burning the brushwood for the sake of increasing 
the pasturage, set fire also to the trees, when miles of valuable 



Rural Life and Pursuits 141 

timber were often consumed. Great damage is also done 
by the goats, who browse on the young saplings ; and the 
pine-trees are injured by the practice of tapping them for 
the resin so largely used, among other purposes, for mixing 
with the native wine. The denizens of these forests are chiefly 

sheep and goats, of which four and a half million 
°He^rdT ^^ *^^ former and three and a half million 

of the latter contribute to the rural wealth of 
the country, their number being on the increase. The sheep 
reared in Greece are of two kinds, one being peculiar to the 
mountain regions, and the other to the plains, the former 
being a small breed and the latter presenting two varieties, 
one with straight wool, and the other, which is met with 
only in Thessaly, having a curly fleece. No attempts appear 
yet to have been made to improve the native breeds either 
as regards the flesh or the wool by the introduction of foreign 
stock, dipping is rarely resorted to, and the shearing is still 
done by hand in time-honoured fashion. 

Oxen and buffaloes, horses, mules, and donkeys are also 
reared in considerable numbers in the lowlands, and attention 

has of late years been given to improving the 
Cattle-Breedkig. native breed of pigs. The larger cattle are, 

however, comparatively few, oxen being bred 
only for farm work and not for the meat market, where beef 
of good quality is seldom found. The native breed is also 
of small size. Buffaloes are seldom seen in Southern and 
Central Greece, though in North-western Thessaly and 
Macedonia they are largely used for farm and heavy draught 
work. The reorganisation of the army has also led to a 
demand for horses suitable for cavalry and artillery, and 
attention is consequently being given to horse-breeding on 
more scientific lines than formerly. The native Thessalian 
horse is small, but sturdy and enduring ; and a considerable 
number are bred on the wide, grassy plains of that extensive 
province. 
The peasant farmers usually own a large number of cattle, 



I 



142 Greece of the Hellenes 

oxen being chiefly used in farm work and for draught pur- 
poses ; and the industry of cattle-breeding is carried on in 
co-operative fashion, the cows being owned collectively by 
the farmers of a village or district. The owners employ two 
or more herdsmen to tend the cows and calves on the common 
pasturages, where they remain permanently during the summer 
months, but in winter are brought back at sunset to be fed 
and stabled at the farmsteads of their various owners. No 
dairy work, however, is undertaken in connection with such 
herds, there being no surplus milk after the calves have been 
satisfied. Dairy farming, as understood in the West, was, 
indeed, quite unknown in Greece until recently, and the few 
dairy farms now to be found in the country have been 
established by foreign residents. 

Pigs are also reared in much the same fashion, being driven 
collectively to the forests in autumn to feed on beech-mast 
and acorns. Of late years some attempts have been made 
to improve the native breed by the introduction of Yorkshire 
and other stock from abroad, and apparently with very 
satisfactory results. 

The charms of the pastoral life have been sung by many 
Greek poets, ancient and modern, as well as by the nameless 
bards of the folk with whose simple utter- 
* Life ^^ ances the shepherd, tending his flock far from 
the haunts of men, cheers his lonely hours — 
careful, however, not to disturb the noontide slumbers of 
those mysterious beings who still, as of old, haunt such sylvan 
solitudes. In many localities, however, the task of shep- 
herding is nowadays shared by the family generally. In 
the highlands of Messenia the children in summer tend the 
sheep and goats on the pasturages during the daytime, while 
by night the men with their fierce dogs keep watch and 
ward against prowling wolf, fox, or human enemy. The 
daughter of a peasant proprietor will also have the care of 
her father's sheep, which she leads every morning to the 
communal pasturage and brings back to the fold at eventide. 



Rural Life and Pursuits 143 

The voskopoula, as a Greek shepherdess is termed, is a very 
favourite character in rural folk-song, and many a charming 
idyll has been composed in her honour by amorous swains. 
Little leisure has she, however, for s^^van dallying, for the 
sheep and goats must be milked and the milk converted into 
the cheese and yiaourti, or sour curds, which form so 
considerable a part of the daily dietary of the household. 

The t5rpical shepherds of Central and Northern Greece are, 
however, the nomad Vlachs previously mentioned, who in 

summer may be found wandering over the 
Shepherds great mountain ranges of Epirus and Thessaly, 

southwards to the shores of the Gulf of Corinth 
and eastwards from Salonica to Cape Sunium, crossing also 
the narrow straits into the mountains of Euboea. These hill 
pasturages they rent from the neighbouring village com- 
munes, or, in the case of Crown lands, from the Govern- 
ment. The winter season is passed in the lowlands; and, 
during several months, the Vlachs may be found encamped 
in great numbers in Attica, in the neighbourhood of Lake 
Paralimme in Boiotia, on the marshy lands near Marathon, 
and in various parts of eastern Thessaly, Here they set up 
their huts, which are circular in shape, of closely-woven reeds 
and branches, comfortably lined within with hangings of 
goats'-hair cloth, the floor of beaten earth being covered with 
thick, native matting and brightly-coloured, home-made lUgs, 
while hard, oblong cushions, piled round against the walls, 
do duty for seats. At Eastertide the lambs are taken into 
the towns for sale, Athens alone consuming diiring that 
festive season not fewer than 80,000 ; and as the ewes by this 
time have lost their milk and are able to travel, the Vlachs 
now break up their winter camp and commence their summer 
migrations. These are effected in leisurely fashion, the 
higher mountains being reached only when the summer heats 
have set in. On the way from one pasturage to another the 
animals are marshalled into a solid phalanx, the goats in 
front, the sheep next, and then the mules and donkeys 



144 Greece of the Hellenes 



1 



carrying — in addition to the tents and the babies — great saddle- 
bags of black hair-cloth containing the dairy utensils and 
other goods and chattels, while the nomads, in fustanella and 
capii of hue equally grimy, \\'ith g\m on shoulder, and attended 
by their fierce Molossian dogs, guard the company on either 
hand from the perils of the way. Their encampments when 

thus on the road — one of which I had some 
Encampment y*?'^^^ ^^^<^ ^^ opportunity of seeing— forms a 

pictiu^esque spectacle. As soon as the halt is 
called, the black goats'-hair tents are imloaded from the 
mules and pitched by the men, while the women and girls 
milk the goats, prepare the evening meal, or mu-se the babies, 
and the flocks are roimded up by the barking dogs and shout- 
ing boys. Arrived at the high pasturages the nomads build 
huts or shealings of pine branches and bnishwood as summer 
quarters for the women and children, who remain in these 
little settlements while the men and boys wander for months 
wdth their flocks and fierce dogs over the high, grassy alps, 
sleeping with them in the open, wTapped only in their shaggy 
caf>as of thick homespun. 

The social organisation of these "\^ach shepherds is of a 
quite patriarchal character. They form small communities 

termed siania, or " Sheepfolds." consisting of 
Chieftains twenty or more families under the headship 

of an hereditary fst'Uingas, or chieftain, who 
governs his little clan on aristocratic principles and himself 
conducts all its transactions with the outside world. In his 
o^^•n family, too, he is an absolute autocrat, and his sons and 
vounger brothers may not sit at table ^rith him, but must 
stand and wait upon their elders and his guests. Many of 
these tsc'Uitigiis are men of substance, and possess valuable 
and interesting heirlooms in the shape of silver cups, cartridge- 
cases, etc., which are marvels of art ; while their women, on 
holiday's, wear ^^^th their native costtmies wonderful belt- 
clasps, bracelets, and hanging necklaces of silver, ponderous 
certainly, but of beautiful workmanship. 



Rural Life and Pursuits 145 

These wealthy flock-masters were, in the old days of Otto- 
man oppression, frequently despoiled both of coin and gear, 
not only by brigands, but also by local Turkish governors; 
and the popular muse records as follows a harrying by the 
latter species of brigand which took place in 1770. 

" Rides a Pasha along the road, another in his wake. 
And to the town of Trikkala themselves do they betake, 

The elders and headmen to seize — it is for this 
DemAke of the they go — 

" White River. ' ' And take Demak6, chief 'mong them of the 
Aspropotam6. 
Demake's warned and fast he flees up to the mountain high. 
He Kriki's towers has reached which are to Mezzovo anigh ; 
Roast meat upon his table's served, sweet wine is in his cup. 
But nor for food nor wine cares he, he has no heart to sup. 
To him his son Nik61a comes and says with cheering voice, 
'Eat now and drink, A f^ndi mine, and let thine heart rejoice I — 
E'en if they should our houses burn, soon shall we build us more I 
If they of us piastres ask, we'll give them gold galore ! 
If of our sheep they rob us now, we'll still have flocks enow. 
For lucky still shall be the Vlachs of the Aspropotamd ' " 

The Demake, whose memory is kept alive in this song, 
was a wealthy Vlach proprietor and head-man of the district 
lying along the banks of the Aspropotamos, the " White 
River." Having been induced by Turkish promises to quit 
his refuge at Mdzzovo, he and his sons were murdered in their 
house at Trikkala. 



10— (2385) 



CHAPTER XII 

URBAN AND SOCIAL LIFE 

Though in some of its aspects quite western and modern, 
Athens, in common with certain provincial towns, still retains 

many Oriental characteristics. Very inter- 
^n A^hens^^ esting are indeed its streets at all times. 

Closely in touch with the surrounding country 
as is the capital and unsophisticated its system of provision- 
ment, the eye is arrested at every turn by some fresh blending 
of rural and urban, of East and West. Now it is a herd of 
the milch goats who twice a day stroll through the streets 
browsing by the way on the orange peel and paper bags 
they find in the gutter. The muffled tinkle of their bells 
which accompanies the fustanella-clad herdsman's cry of 
Ghdla J Ghdla ! brings to their doors one housewife or maid- 
servant after another with their pitchers, into which the 
sweet warm milk is directly drawn. Presently the little 
shoeblack from Southern Greece comes up with his cry of 
Loustro verniki! and, seeing a stranger, offers him tickets 
in the State lottery before he sets to work on the couple of 
pairs of men's shoes which have been thrown out to him. 

Athens possesses quite a little army of boot- 
Shoeblack blacks who may be seen in every street 

with their boxes, which they knock with a 
brush to attract the attention of the public; and between 
the prevalance of dust in dry and of mud in wet weather 
and the Athenian's pride in his immaculate footgear, the 
loustroi, numerous as they are, manage not only to make a 
living, but to earn enough to send money to their relatives 
at home. Bright, capable, and obliging, with Greek adap- 
tiveness they earn also many a lepton by selling papers as 
well as lottery tickets, carrying parcels and running errands ; 

146 




ATHENS FROM THE PROPYLEUM 
{From a photograph by the Author) 



Urban and Social Life 147 

and, when their day's work is done, evening finds a goodly 
number assembled at the night-schools provided for boys of 
this industrial class. 

An ancient crone, wrinkled, tanned and bent, with black 
handkerchief tied under her chin, who might have been 
Homer's mother, is presently overtaken bearing on her back 
in a dilapidated hamper the wild herbs and salad stuffs 
gathered at early morn on one of the surrounding hills. Ten 
leptd (Id.) is the price of the heaped-up dishful of dgria radikia 
she now disposes of to a customer. To-day being a fast-day, 
the salad, boiled and then dressed with oil and lemon juice 
— will probably constitute the most important dish at the 
midday meal. " Cold, cold figs ! " cries a vendor of that 
delicious fruit, borne, covered with broad green leaves, in 
panniers slung over a donkey's saddle, implying that his 
wares have been gathered at dawn, fruit being considered 
unwholesome if heated by the sun before being plucked ; 
and as he passes us, an islander in rustling, baggy blue 
breeches, braided jacket and close cap with long tassel, 
stops him to purchase a pennyworth — as many as will lie 
on his broad strong hand. 

Though the Greeks have accepted the decimal system of 
Western Europe as regards the coin of the realm, in the 
matter of weights and measures they have 
w'^^ht'^^ A ^^°^^ ^ truly Oriental conservatism. For 
& Measures. notwithstanding the fact that the decimal 
* system was imposed by a State ordinance 

as long ago as 1836, commerce still continues to be carried 
on to a great extent by means of the Turkish oka (about 
2| lbs. avoirdupois) divisible into 400 dvdmia, every comes- 
tible — including wine and oil — being soldby weight. And 
the equally Oriental irixn o^ ^^^ (22| inches) still reigns 
1 supreme among the linendrapers of Greece, as among those 
of Constantinople and Smyrna. 

Among the Greeks generally, and especially in the 
provinces and the islands, it is every man's ambition to own 



148 Greece of the Hellenes 

the house he lives in and transmit it, together with its adjoining 
garden and vineyard, to his descendants. The insecurity 
of tenure of any state-paid post which, as mentioned in a 
previous chapter, prevailed during so many decades prior 
to the recent reforms introduced by M. Venizelos, by creating 
a large class of migratory employees who could never hope 
to have settled homes until they had earned their pensions, 
resulted in a large demand for temporary dwellings. In 
the provinces rents are very moderate, but at Athens, where 
the demand for houses is ever on the increase, rents tend to 
increase proportionately. Annual leases are the rule, the 
landlord being responsible for repairs and the occupier for the 
house tax of 5 per cent, on the rental, or the estimated letting 
value if occupied by the owner. Tenants of yearly houses 
would appear to change their abodes pretty frequently, as 
about term day — ^which in Greece is September 1st — endless 
loads of furniture may be seen on their way from one house 
to another. 

As in all the larger centres of the Levant, gambling is a 
diversion which has a considerable attraction for the Greeks, 
and more especially for those of the Capital, 
Gambling. where a number of gambling " hells " are 
said to thrive. The institution of State 
lotteries, even for such praiseworthy objects as archaeological 
exploration, and, more recently, for the increase of the Greek 
Navy, can also hardly fail to have the undesirable result of 
encouraging the gambling spirit in the nation generally. 
As, however, the conversion of the delightful island of Corfu 
into an Oriental Monte Carlo — proposed some years ago — was 
strongly opposed in other parts of the Kingdom, the tendency 
of the nation generally would seem to be averse to gambling, 
and there is reason to believe that this vice is, so far, confined 
chiefly to certain circles in the capital. Among outdoor 
winter amusements at Athens that most in vogue among the 
" fashionable " set is the equestrian sport termed " fox- 
hunting," in which one person takes the part of the " fox " 



Urban and Social Life 149 

and is pursued by a number of other riders who are the 
" hounds." Race meetings are also held in summer on 

the Podoniphte course in the direction of 
^porte'^ Mount Fames, this name being ironically 

applied to the locality on account of its lack of 
water and consequent terrible dust. Dust is, indeed, the 
chief characteristic of Athens and its neighbourhood generally 
in the dry weather, and it is only of late years that any at all 
adequate measures have been taken by the municipal 
authorities to cope with it. On suburban roads, as for 
instance that between the Piraeus and Athens, the writer has 
seen it in autumn lying six inches deep ; and the condition of 
the traveller on arriving at Athens after driving in an open 
vehicle through five miles of this may perhaps be better 
imagined than described. 

Lawn tennis, introduced together with golf by the foreign 
community of Athens, is also popular in fashionable circles, 

and there are good courts at the club 
Athletics. estabUshed near the temple of the Olympian 

Zeus. Football and cricket present no 
attractions to the youth of Greece, and the latter game, 
introduced into Corfu during the British occupation, has 
gradually died out even there. The old manly sports of 
wrestling, " putting the stone," etc., once so common a 
feature of Greek holiday life, now survive only among the 
denizens of remote villages. The athletic exercises of late 
years made compulsory in the schools — which already seem 
to have improved the physique of the rising generation to a 
marked degree — will, however, no doubt in time revive a liking 
for manly games and diminish the loafing tendencies hitherto 
characteristic of the golden youth of the Greek capital. 
For, unlike his kinsmen of the hill-regions of Greece, who are 
untiring walkers, the average Athenian, like South-European 
townsmen generally, will never put himself to this exertion 
if he can possibly drive, or ride in a tram, and seems unable 
to understand why anyone should walk for pleasure. The 



150 Greece of the Hellenes 

capital is, accordingly, well supplied with public conveyances, 
the little two-horsed carriages which ply for hire in the streets 
and carry four persons, conveying fares up and down Stadion 
Street for a penny a head. 

Athens has no public park, and the chief promenades of 

her citizens are the gardens surrounding the Zappeion 

Institute, those adjoining the Royal Palace, 

Promenades ^^^ ^^^ large open space beyond known as 
" Constitution Square," where one finds the 
principal hotels, the best cafe, and Messrs. Thos. Cook & Son's 
useful office. This square constitutes the centre of outdoor 
life, and on sunny winter afternoons and serene summer 
evenings hundreds of Athenians saunter up and down or 
occupy the numerous chairs and tables which impinge on the 
pavement outside the cafe Zacharatos. Of suburban resorts, 
the most frequented is New Phaleron, on the Bay of that 
name, connected with Athens by a fine road called after that 
benefactor of the nation, the late M. Syngros, who provided 
the funds for its completion. Phaleron is now not only the 
marine suburb of the capital but the chief watering-place of 
Greece, being easily reached either by train or steam tram. 
The place lacks shade certainly, but the seaward view is ex- 
quisite, and the bathing delightful. And here, in the summer 
months, the Athenian gymnasts may be seen in numbers, 
rowing, diving, and swimming, at which latter exercises they 
show themselves remarkably expert. 

Athens possesses two large theatres, the more modern of 
which was erected about a dozen years ago with funds sub- 
scribed by Greeks domiciled in London and placed at the 
disposal of the late King, who also contributed to its support 
an annual subsidy of ;^4,000. Constructed on the model 
of the Theatre Royal in the Danish capital, it is comfortable 
and well appointed, has seating accommodation for a thousand 
persons, a fireproof stage, and a foyer sufficiently spacious to 
serve as ball-room. Here a permanent company is maintained 
possessing a considerable repertory, and a variety of pieces 



Urban and Social Life 151 

are staged during the course of each winter season. The 
acting is also very creditable notwithstanding the modest 
salaries paid to actors, even of the first rank, and French, 
German, and Itahan " stars " also visit the Greek capital 
from time to time. With the arrival of the warm weather, 
when the regular theatres are closed, begins the season of 
the " summer theatres," of which a number are to be found 
in Athens and its suburbs. In these, light comedy is usually 
provided by travelling troupes, both native and foreign, who 
during the winter months make the tour of the other cities 
of the Levant ; farces and httle plays by minor Greek 
dramatists being also occasionally represented. 

Provincial theatres are, as yet, but few and far between. 
Corfu, however, possesses two, one of which, erected at great 
expense, is admitted to be the finest in the kingdom ; and at 
Hermoupolis, the new capital of Syra, may be found both a 
" winter " and a " summer " theatre. Plays produced in 
Greece must, in order to be well received, be of good moral 
tone, as the nation generally has no taste for drama of a 
questionable character, and foreign artistes who offend in 
this respect run the risk of being pelted off the stage. 

There exist in Greece no establishments answering to the 

public-houses of this country with their adulterated and 

The Greek stupefying beverages and debasing atmos- 

Wine Shop, phere ; and though cases of intoxication 
are not uncommon among men of the labouring class, there 
is, on the other hand, a total absence of the habitual drunken- 
ness which degrades so considerable a proportion of the 
same class in Western Europe. Nor are women ever seen 
in Greek wine-shops, either as vendors or consumers. The 
typical " public-house " of Greece is a small tavern owned 
by the man behind the counter, whose stock-in-trade 
is in many cases the product of his own vineyard and 
winepress. Adjoining many of these humble wayside 
tavernas are gardens roofed with spreading vines and furnished 
with rough tables and rush-bottomed chairs, and here the 



152 Greece of the Hellenes 

Greek workman or labourer spends a considerable part of 
his evening leisure, but at little cost, and as a rule with no 
bad results. For a penny will purchase for him a big tumbler 
of wine and a handful of olives, in the consumption of which 
he may spend as many hours as he pleases, and this he will 
probably supplement with copious draughts of pure water. 
A Greek also never drinks without partaking of at least a 
modicum of food. And the oinemboros will have ready on 
small plates a variety of such small edibles as olives and chick- 
peas, haricot beans, cubes of young cucumber, or green 
peppers, fresh cheese, shell or dried fish, with fruits and nuts 
according to season. In the open air, with the leaves rustling 
overhead, the Greek workman will make merry for hours 
over his pint of wine, discussing politics with his companions, 
or raising his voice from time to time in one of those dismal 
ditties, pitched in a minor key, in which his contentment finds 
expression. When he finally decides to leave, and not till 
then, does the customer offer to pay his score, and as he parts 
with his modest dhekdra, or penny piece, a cordial " good- 
night " will be exchanged between him and his genial host. 
Food and wine are also frequently provided by the same 
establishment, the bakal — as a grocer and chandler is still 

termed, as in Turkish times — frequently 
in^Greece*^^ combining that calling with tavern-keeping, 

when his shop will be provided with chairs 
and tables for the accommodation of the customers seeking 
refreshment, these being by no means always of the humbler 
classes, for a Greek, whatever his station in life, is always 
ready to sit down and talk. A cookshop also often forms 
part of the premises of a bakal, who lets off a room or 
garden to a cook. Or a cook will go into the same kind 
of partnership with a vintner who supplies table wine for 
the customers of the cookshop. Such a combined provision 
and wineshop will be found in every village, at which 
the traveller, if not too exclusive in his gastronomic tastes, 
may satisfy his hunger and thirst, the bakal being quite 



Urban and Social Life 153 

as likely to extol the local spring as to vaunt his own 
retsindto ; for the Greeks are as great connoisseurs of " Adam's 
ale " as are their Turkish neighbours, and, like them, 
distinguish between " light " and " heavy " varieties. The 
piece de resistance of a Greek bill of fare is almost invariably 
lamb — lamb stuffed with rice, currants, and koukoundria, or 
pine-kemels, and roasted whole on the spit in brigand fashion, 

boiled lamb, or ragout of lamb in which figure 
Cookerr various succulent vegetables, as also in their 

turn such fruits as quinces and prunes. 
Macaroni and pilaf are also common dishes, though the latter 
as prepared in Greece compares very unfavourably with the 
product of the cookshops of Smyrna and Stamboul. Most 
excellent likewise are the young vegetable marrows filled with 
a farci of rice, minced lamb and savoury herbs, and especially 
when smothered in a sauce of golden hue composed of yolk of 
egg and lemon juice, the form in which they are usually 
presented to the hungry guest. Among the array of edibles 
displayed in the open-fronted shop of the bakal is usually 
found a block of that popular and excellent sweetmeat helvd, 
a compound of crushed sesame seed and honey of a peculiar 
flaky consistency, on a halfpenny worth of which, eaten with 
a piece of bread, a Greek working man will contentedly dine. 
Honey, which is plentiful and usually of excellent quality, 
is largely employed in the Near East in the preparation of 
native sweets and cakes in lieu of sugar, unobtainable in 
Greece at less than 9d. per pound, owing to the high duty, 
and only used as a great luxury for sweetening coffee. 

The cakes and sweet dishes of the Greeks, which are excellent, 
are for the most part very similar to those of the Turks and 

Armenians, and known by Turkish names, 
Dishes ^^^ ^^^ ^^^Y ^ound at their best m private 

houses, where they are prepared with great 
care, frequently by women who make a living by going from 
house to house for this purpose. Among these cakes may be 
mentioned haklavd and katalf. The former is composed 



154 Greece of the Hellenes 

of innumerable layers of the lightest puff-paste, laid one by 

one in a shallow copper baking-pan, honey and almonds 

being spread between every few layers ; and the latter of a 

kind of soft home-made vermicelli formed into little rolls 

which are baked brown in the oven, the contents being either 

fruit preserve or goats'-milk cheese. Compotes of fruit also 

figure largely in the daily menus of private families of the 

better class. The preserves termed collectively glyko — 

elsewhere alluded to as being invariably served to callers — 

are also most carefully prepared by, or under the immediate 

superintendence of the lady of the house. One of the 

commonest as well as the most delicious is made with the 

morella cherry, or sultana grape ; and among the choicer 

and more luscious varieties are conserves of rose-petals 

— rodozdchari, of tiny bergamot oranges floating in a clear 

sugar syrup, of kolokfthi — an attentuated species of vegetable 

marrow, cut into narrow strips and blended with honey 

and almonds, and a mysterious compound flavoured with 

mastic, like white ice-cream in appearance, the ingredients 

and mode of preparation of which I have hitherto failed to 

ascertain. 

Hotels are, of course, now to be found in all the seaports and 

larger towns of Greece, and at Athens there are at least two 

de premier ordre. The latter are, however, 
<( Hotels of 
Sleeo " patronised chiefly by foreigners. For the 

humbler class of folk whom business or 
pleasure occasionally brings to town there are hostelries 
termed " Hotels of Sleep," where no meals are served, the 
guests providing themselves with food at one or other of the 
cookshops always found close by. These hostelries are 
usually in the vicinity of the railway stations, and together 
\yith those which in the provincial towns provide accommoda- 
tion of the same class, are a survival of the han of Turkish 
days, modernised to the extent of providing such amenities 
as beds and towels, slippers, and even hair-brushes. The 
foreigner, however, is seldom under the necessity of 



Urban and Social Life 155 

availing himself of these caravanserais — which, to him, will 
probably present many drawbacks. For he will almost certainly 
have taken the precaution of obtaining letters of introduction 
to the demarch or some other notable of the locality, of, it 
may be, to the prior of a neighbouring monastery where he 
will be hospitably welcomed, and — if lucky enough to arrive 
at a season when the good Fathers are not observing one of 
their rigorous fasts — entertained with the best fare at the 
disposal of the convent. The Hellene is indeed uniformly 
courteous to the foreigner, and especially if he be of British 
nationality ; and there is in Greece a notable absence of that 
expectation of tips so prevalent in the neighbouring Italian 
peninsula, as in the majority of tourist-overrun countries. 
The Greek language, indeed, appears to possess no name for 
this institution, for which the Turkish term bakshish has to do 
duty. In provincial towns, as also in the islands, well-to-do 

tradespeople and others will, where there 
Hospitality ^^ ^^ decent inn, gladly take the traveller 

into their houses, cook for him their choicest 
dishes, and place their services in everyway at his disposal; 
while the village priest deems it a favour when his poor 
hospitality is accepted, and even the peasant will offer the 
fruits of his garden and a draught of wine of his own 
vintage. 

Hospitality in the shape of entertaining friends and neigh- 
bours at one's own table has, on the other hand, no place in 
Greek social life — save, of course, among the Europeanised 
elite of the Capital. One may, for instance — as in the writer's 
own experience, — be for years on quite intimate terms with 
Greek families without ever being bidden to partake of either 
luncheon, dinner, or tea with them. On one occasion I was 
asked by a Greek friend to a birthday tea she was giving for 
her young son and his little pla5nnates ; but though my 
presence at this function involved a journey into the suburbs, 
my share of the entertainment consisted in watching the 
little lions feed, for neither a cup of tea nor a slice of the 



156 Greece of the Hellenes 

birthday cake came my way or the way of my companion, 
whose hospitality the hostess herself frequently enjoyed. 
On meeting the same lady some years later in England, 
however, she appeared to have adapted herself to her new 
environment, and showed herself quite as hospitable as the 
average Briton. Hospitality as understood in the West, 
must not, therefore, be looked for in Greece, it being contrary 
to the customs of the country. Light refreshments are, of 
course, served at christenings, weddings, and such ceremonial 
functions, and, as in Turkey, one never pays a call without 
being offered glykd and Turkish coffee — but that is the hmit. 

The construction of railways in a country so intersected 
with mountain ranges as Greece has naturally been a very 

costly undertaking, and previous to 1869, 
in^^reec^ when a short line connecting Athens with 

the Piraeus was opened, the kingdom 
possessed no railway communication whatever. All journeys 
to places within a moderate distance of the coast had conse- 
quently to be made by sea, and even now the coasting steamer 
is the most popular mode of conveyance. This local passenger 
traffic is, however, exclusively by the Greek lines of steamboats 
which possess the monopoly ; and the disregard of time 
tables, together with the irregularity of their intinerary — 
which depends entirely on the cargo — prevent European 
travellers making sea journeys save when visiting the 
islands, at which hardly any of the foreign lines of steamers 
call. Nor do the native steamboats ever lie alongside the 
quays, but anchored at a little distance, thus respecting the 
time-honoured privileges of the local boatmen to take their 
toll also of the traveller, however humble. At the present day, 
however, Greece possesses at least half-a-dozen different 
railway systems, respectively constructed (1) at the cost of the 
State, (2) by independent private enterprise, and (3) by private 
capital with a kilometric guarantee from the Government, 
which takes a share of the profits. One of these systems. 



Urban and Social Life 157 

besides making the complete circuit of the Peloponnesos, 
has branches connecting most of the important towns and 
places of archaeological interest in the peninsula with the 
Capital. Northern Greece has also now three distinct systems 
of which that of the Thessahan Company has the reputation 
of being the best both as regards rolhng stock and punctuality 
of service. 

Nearly all these lines, in common with those of Southern 

Greece, afford the traveller glimpses of magnificent mountain 

scenery. The Kalavryta branch, for instance, 

R^lwavs which connects that town with Diakophto — 

the only cogwheel railway in Greece and a 

splendid piece of engineering, — winds through a deep gorge, 

crossing and recrossing the ravine by bridges at dizzy heights, 

darting through tunnels in mountain sides clad with forests 

of oak and pine, and spreading before the traveller's delighted 

gaze a panorama of ever-changing grandeur and beauty. 

One peculiarity of Greek railways is the lack of proper 
station accommodation and supervision, as also of any 
protection by means of fences or otherwise of the lines even 
in the neighbourhood of towns. Travelling from Athens to 
Patras, for example, as the train slows down on nearing the 
latter town where the line passes through the streets to the 
station — or rather stopping place, a mere shed for the col- 
lection of tickets — a noisy swarm of hotel touts, porters 
and loafers crowd the platforms, free fights over the passengers 
and their luggage being by no means uncommon when at 
last the train comes to a standstill. Neither is great speed 
at any time attained on these railways. But we are in the 
East, where time is no object and no one ever in a special 
hurry. The management of the passenger department, 
however, leaves little to complain of, the officials are specially 
courteous to the foreigner, the fares are not exhorbitant, 
and the refreshment buffets are now fairly numerous. In 
the immediate neighbourhood of the Capital there exist also 
considerable railway facilities for reaching the suburbs. 



158 Greece of the Hellenes 

and steam-trams run to Old and New Phaleron. The 
attempt made some years ago to introduce motor omnibuses 
proved a failure ; and, save in the Capital, private motor- 
cars are as yet unknown in the country, having there been 
introduced either by members of the Royal Family or by 
foreign residents. 

In the country districts the usual vehicle for passenger 
conveyance is the sousta, an uncovered light spring-cart 

which carries four persons, its brilliant 
Travelf colouring recalling the painted carts of Sicily. 

The artistic decoration of a sousta, however, 
consists merely of a human hand with outstretched forefinger 
painted on one or both sides, probably a talisman against the 
" Evil Eye," though the Greek, when questioned on the subject, 
is loth to admit the superstition. While the roads of Greece 
have greatly improved during the last half century, the nature 
of the country renders many parts still inaccessible to wheel 
traffic. If one travels at all away from the beaten track 
it will generally be necessary to avail oneself of the services 
of an agoydte, as the attendants on hired saddle-beasts are 
termed. In hilly or mountainous districts the mule is, 
indeed, the only available means of conveyance, and must 
often be had recourse to in many parts of the interior where 
the roads are still mere bridle-paths on torrent beds. The 
muleteer is usually a chatty, communicative fellow, who 
walks alongside, the goad he carries in his hand making little 
difference to the rate of progress, which, whether going uphill 
or downhill, seldom exceeds three miles an hour. Donkeys 

are also very numerous, both on the mainland 
in^GreeceT ^"^ ^^ ^^^ islands; but, unhke the saddle 

donkeys of Alexandria and Smyrna, they 
are usually very small, though of late some attempts have 
been made to improve the breed by the introduction of 
foreign varieties. They are also largely used as pack-animals, 
all kinds of merchandise, from garden-stuffs and grain-sacks 
to building materials, being transported on the backs of these 



Urban and Social Life 159 

much abused, but patient and useful little beasts of burden. 
In the island of Andros, which possesses no wheeled con- 
veyance of any description, the donkey is also called upon to 
perform the function of dust-cart, the refuse of the streets being 
thrown into huge panniers slung on either side of his wooden 
saddle. Save at more civilised Syra, where the saddle donkeys 
are, as at Smyrna, supplied with a smart carpet-covered sella 
studded with brass-headed nails at peak and crupper, the 
rider also must bestride the high wooden samdri similar to 
that carried by the beasts of burden, for which a loop of rope 
does duty as stirrup, another serving for rein. But the 
hempen headstalls of donkeys, mules, and horses alike will 
invariably be found decorated with strings of blue glass 
beads as charms against the baleful influence of that most 
dreaded of all occult powers — the " Evil Eye." 



CHAPTER XIII 

FESTAL LIFE 

The observances connected with the numerous festivals 
of the Greek Church play an important part in the social 
life of the country. Utilitarians may 
"Ho^rda^." exclaim against their frequency and the 
consequent interruptions to business occa- 
sioned by them. Seekers after the picturesque, on the other 
hand, would regret to see them fall into desuetude, consecrated 
as these festivals are by traditions extending in some cases 
over 2,000 years. And among the peasant population, 
at least, these time-honoured customs are likely long to endure. 
For rehgion, in its outward forms, at any rate, still possesses 
as firm a hold as ever on the nation generally, and a Greek 
would as soon think of feasting on a fast day as of failing to 
honour by abstinence from labour any of the Saints' Days 
of the Calendar. If requested by a foreign employer to per- 
form any pressing service on such a festival, the workman's 
reply is, " We dare not, Afendi, the Saint would strike us ! " 
Though Christmas is, with the Orthodox, a much less 
important festival than Easter or the New Year, it is every- 
where in Greece celebrated with various 
Christmas observances, some of which are peculiar to 
the season, and others similar to those 
attending all the greater Church festivals. CaroUers pervade 
the streets on Christmas Eve singing their odes descriptive 
of the incidents which attended the wondrous events of the 
" Christ-births," ^ carrying little boat-shaped collecting- 
boxes for the coins expected in return for the good wishes 
to the archontes with which these odes invariably terminate. 
Among the peasants of Albanian origin Christmas is, 
however, observed with ceremonies that recall those of more 
northern countries as well as with others similar to those 

160 



Festal Life 161 

of the Vlach and Bulgarian neighbours of the Greeks. In 
the Albanian villages the housewife will make, in addition to 

other sweet cakes, a batch in the shape of rings 
Christmas which are called kolendhra, the one first 
Customs. shaped being termed the " cake of the oxen," 

this being hung on the wall of the byre 
" for luck." There it is allowed to remain until the farmer 
has yoked his oxen for the spring ploughing, when it is taken 
down and broken on the yoke, the pieces being divided 
between the pair. Fire ceremonies also play an important 
part in the Christmas observances of the Albanian peasantry, 
and on Christmas Eve a great log is brought into the house at 
sunset, when all the members of the family rise to greet it 
with the words, " Welcome, our log ! — God has destined 
thee for the fire. Bring with thee good luck to us and to our 
beasts!" Before the family sit down to supper a spoonful 
of food from every dish provided is placed upon the burning 
log. Some branches of a cherry-tree are also put on the fire, 
and, when half consumed, are removed and kept till the 
Eve of Epiphany, when they are again thrown on the hearth, 
the ashes being on the following day strewn on the vineyards 
to ensure a good harvest. 

The Greek New Year's Day is dedicated to St. Basil, who, 
hke St. George, is specially connected in popular and religious 

legend with Caesarea — or, as it is locally 
Day^* ^ called, Kaisariyeh — in Cappodocia ; ^ and on 

the Eve of St. Basil children go from house 
to house singing odes in honour of the Saint, which invariably 

1 Pilgrimages are made twice a year by the Orthodox to the monas- 
tery of this saint, situated on a mountain in the neighbourhood of 
Caesarea, the first on Saturday in Holy Week, and the second at 
Pentecost, and to the preformance of this religious duty the following 
beliefs are attached : If the pilgrimage is made barefooted, it absolves 
the penitent from any special sin that may be troubling his mind. If 
made seven times on foot during a person's lifetime, it ensures the 
forgiveness of all his sins. And to partake of the Eucharist at the 
monastery church is deemed far more meritorious than to observe 
this rite at the church at Csesarea dedicated to St. Basil. 

II— (2385) 



162 Greece of the Hellenes 

conclude with some complimentary lines to the occupants, 
wishing them " A good year," and requesting largesse. St. 
Basil is described in these songs as a school-boy whose touch 
quickens inanimate objects with new life, as in the following — 

" The month's first day, the year's first day, the first of January, 
The circumcision day of Christ, the day, too, of St. Basil ! 
St. Basil, see, is coming here, from Cappadocia coming, 
A paper in his hand he holds, and carries pen and inkhorn. 
With pen and inkhorn doth he write, and reads he from the paper. 
' Say, Basil, say, whence comest thou, and whither art thou wending ? ' 
' I from my home have now come forth, and I to school am going.' 
' Sit down and eat, sit down and drink, sit down and sing thou 

for us ! ' 
' 'Tis only letters that I learn, of singing I know nothing.' 
' O then, if you your letters know, say us your Alpha, Beta,' 
And as he leant upon his staff, to say his A Ipha, Beta, 
Although the staff was dry and dead, it put forth shoots and 
branches," etc. 

By the Athenians the Eve of St. Basil is observed as a 
species of Saturnalia which in some of its aspects recalls 
the festival of the " Befana " at Rome. Throughout the 
afternoon of this day Hermes Street more especially is thronged 
with pedestrians of all ages armed with rattles, whistles, 
penny trumpets and other ear-torturing devices, and passers- 
by find themselves assailed with paper confetti and other 
harmless but annoying missiles. Towards evening the 
boat-hke collecting-boxes are thrust by bands of youths 
at every well-to-do person met with, while later bands of 
musicians serenade both private houses and hotels with 
their " Song of St. Basil," to which improvised lines are 
often added to suit each particular circumstance. Those 
niggardly with their largesse on such occasions may indeed 
occasionally be exposed to no very gentle criticism by these 
Hellenic satirists. Cakes somewhat similar to our " Twelfth- 
cakes " have been prepared for the occasion 

New Year's 

Cakes ^^ every household, some being also presented 

to friends and neighbours, and towards 

midnight are cut with great ceremony by the head of the 

household. Like our Twelfth-cakes, they also contain a coin, 



Festal Life 163 

varying in value according to the worldly wealth of the 
family ; and the recipient of the lucky slice containing this 
may look confidently forward to a prosperous year. In 
some localities the cake-cutting ceremony is supplemented 
by the throwing on the ground of a pomegranate — the emblem 
of plenty — the seeds of which as it bursts being scattered in all 
directions. 

The dawn of the New Year is heralded by the sounding in 
Constitution Square of the reveille by the drums and trumpets 
. of the garrison, sunrise being subsequently 
Ceremony"^ greeted by a salute of twenty-one guns from 
the battery on the " Hill of the Nymphs," 
and the streets soon resound with the cheerful strains of 
military bands. Towards ten o'clock the King and the 
Royal Family, attended by their bodyguard of Evzonoi, 
with the members of the corps diplomatique, the Ministers 
and Deputies, and crowds of townsfolk of every degree, 
betake themselves to the Metropolitan Church, at the doorway 
of which the Archbishop presents a copy of the Gospels to each 
member of the royal party who in turn reverently kiss the 
sacred book. After the conclusion of the Te Deum the King 
returns to the Palace to receive the New Year congratulations 
of all the State functionaries, from members of the Holy 
Synod and Cabinet Ministers to college professors. At noon 
a levee is held, at which only mihtary and naval officers 
attend ; and half an hour later the Queen holds a drawing 
room — ^termed in Greek hesomdna, or hand-kissing — at which 
some of the ladies of the Royal family, as also some of the 
company, make a point of wearing the Greek national dress. 
The afternoon is occupied with visits and card-leaving, every- 
body being occupied in wishing everybody else not " a Happy 
New Year," but " many years." Bonamddes, or New 
Year's gifts, are also de rigueur between friends, the shop 
windows being crowded with articles suitable for presents, 
and every servant and shop employee expects, and receives, 
a gift of money. 



164 Greece of the Hellenes 

The next great Church festival is that of the Epiphany, 
or, as it is termed by the Greeks, the " Feast of the Lights." 

On this day also takes place in many localities 
the^"L^hts°" ^ ceremony termed the "Blessing of the 

Waters," which is perhaps most effective 
when witnessed in the picturesque and busy harbour of Syra. 
On the Eve of this festival the priests go round their parishes 
" blessing " all the houses with holy water, a sprig of sweet 
basil being used as aspergillus. In the evening, companies 
of boys carrying lanterns parade the streets singing " Odes " 
dramatically describing the accomplishment of this rite on 
the person of Christ, receiving in return for their songs 
the usual gifts of sweet biscuits and leptd, or small coins. 
The following literal translation of one of these quaint odes, 
current in loannina — " St. John's Town " — may serve as a 
specimen of this class of religious ballads. 

" O come and learn the wonder great, the marvel great that happened. 
How Christ did condescend for men, for them did greatly suffer ; 
How down to Jordan's brink He went, and into Jordan's waters. 
With the desire to be baptised there by St. John the Baptist. 
' Come, O my John, come hither now, do thou straightway baptise 

me — 
For in this awful wonder thou mayst serve me and attend me.' 
' My Lord, I all unworthy am to gaze upon Thy beauty, 
Or to behold the holy Dove that o'er Thy Head is hovering. 
Ah Lord ! 'tis not for sinful me to touch thy Heaven-sent Person, 
For the wide earth and all the heavens submit them to Thy orders.'' 
' Come hither, O my John, to me, nor do thou longer tarry. 
For to this Mystery we perform thou shalt become the sponsor ! ' 
Then John baptised his Lord forthwith, that might be cleansed and 

purged. 
The sin that Adam first had sinned, and that it might be cancelled ; 
Confounded, too, that Enemy, foiled that Thrice-accursed^ 
Beguiler of Mankind, in Hell enchained to dwell forever ! " 

By eight o'clock on the morn of this festival, the great 
Church of the Transfiguration at Syra will be densely crowded 
with the Orthodox of all sorts and conditions, from local 

^ This is a very common name for Satan, and occurs as the title 
of a Greek folktale, included in my translations of Greek Folkpoesy, 
Vol. II, pp. 99, etc., and Annotation No. 21. 



1 



Festal Life 165 

dignitaries in dress suits and white ties, to rough sailors and 
fishermen. On a platform erected in the nave is placed, 
adorned with leaves and branches, a pictorial representation of 
the Baptism of Christ, together with a large silver bowl of 
water over which is suspended a dove. On the termination 
of the Liturgy the officiating clergy in their gorgeous vest- 
ments, served by a layman in swallow-tailed coat, mount the 
platform, and the Epistle and Gospel of the day are read. 
The bishop or archimandrite then blesses the bowl of water, 
after which there ensues a rush on the part of the congregation 
to secure some of the sanctified fluid in the cups and glasses 
with which they have come provided. A procession is then 

formed, a band strikes up, and the clergy, 
the Wat«-s. bearing the great Cross and the symbohcal 

six-winged angels and preceded by acolytes 
with silver censers and lamps, move majestically down to the 
water-side between a double file of soldiers with fixed bayonets. 
In front a space has been left clear of the shipping which, 
moored around, is gay with bunting and crowded with excited 
spectators. The bishop then casts into the open water the 
great Cross. This is eagerly dived for, seized, struggled for, 
captured and recaptured, until one lucky swimmer finally 
succeeds in bringing the precious object to land. For the 
rest of the day the Cross is the property of this much envied 
man who, escorted by a number of his friends, carries it 
through the streets of the town, receiving contributions in 
money at every door in acknowledgment of his feat. As 
between New Year's Day and the " Blessing of the Waters " — 
which is held to ensure the setting in of fine weather — ^no 
sailing-master will steer out of the harbour of Syra, it is at 
this season usually crowded with shipping. 

The Greek observance of Carnival varies according to 
locality, and it is only in the Capital and the larger provincial 
towns that it is at all observed as in Roman Catholic 
countries. During the last week of this festal season there 
may, however, be seen in the streets of Athens, in addition 



166 Greece of the Hellenes 

to the usual Carnival features, improvised stages on which 
are enacted rude little dramas, possibly a survival of Thespis 

and his cart ; while a possible reminiscence of 
Customs. ^^^ Bacchic processions may be found in the 

stage camel which is made to perambulate the 
main thoroughfares. Every evening parties of men in fancy 
dresses parade the streets on foot or in carriages with music 
and song, and according to accepted custom, may — as also 
at Smyrna — request admission to any house if vouched for 
by one of the party, usually a relative or friend of the family. 
Sometimes such a visit is expected, and provision will then be 
made beforehand for the entertainment of these self-invited 
guests. In the afternoon and evening of the last Sunday of 
Carnival — ^which with the Greeks constitutes also the last 
day of that season — Constitution Square is the nucleus of 
gaiety, being crowded with masquers on foot and in hired 
carriages, for which exhorbitant prices are charged, the 
festivities culminating in a masked ball at the Theatre. 

The first day of Lent is termed by the Greeks " Clean 
Monday," the Orthodox having on the morning of this day 

been shriven ; and at Athens the whole 
Monday"" population repairs about midday to the 

various suburban resorts to keep the simple 
festival of the Koulouma. The groves of Kephisia and the 
hills in all directions are thronged with family parties picnick- 
ing on Lenten fare of bread and olives, and in the afternoon 
the shepherds and milkmen, together with groups of fivzonoi, 
perform their country dances in the vicinity of the Theseum 
and the Temple of the Olympian Zeus, as in olden days did 
the votaries of the goat-footed sylvan deity. 

No Greek festival approaches, however, in importance that 
of Easter in which the various solemnities of the preceding 

Holy Week culminate. The Eve of Palm 
Week. Sunday is sacred to Lazarus, and the songs 

sung in the streets on this occasion present a 
curious medley of dialogue between Christ, Martha, Mary, and 



Festal Life 167 

Lazarus, and complimentary speeches and good wishes to 
the neighbours. On the following day, which is called Vaia, 
it is permissible to eat a certain kind of fish called kolio,'^ 
and on Holy Thursday every housewife boils a number of 
eggs with cochineal for the approaching Easter festival, 
and bakes a quantity of cakes and sweet biscuits, many of 
which have in the centre one of these dyed eggs. At the hour 
when the Gospels are read, eggs to the number of the house- 
hold, including the servants, and one over, are placed in a 
napkin, and carried to church to be blessed by the priest, 
the supplementary egg being laid before the Eikonostasion, 
or place of the Holy Pictures, and afterwards kept as a 
remedy against all kinds of ills. Many of these eggs have 
traced upon them in elegant characters texts of Scripture 
and other sacred words, together with the date. 

The services of Good Friday — " The Great Friday," as 
it is termed by the Orthodox — ^begin before midnight 

on Thursday when the so-called " Twelve 
Friday ^^ Gospels " — ^twelve passages relating to the 

Passion selected from the four Gospels — are 
read, while on " the Great Friday " the " Great Hours " 
take the place of the ordinary Hours in the services of the 
Church. On this day every Orthodox man, woman and 
child visits a church to reverence the epitdphios, a silk or satin 
cloth on which is pictorially represented the entombment of 
the Saviour, stretched on a sort of bier placed in the nave and 
decorated with flowers. The first time I had an opportunity 
of witnessing this Easter Eve service was at the Metropolitan 
Church at Salonica, while still an Ottoman city. On entering, 
we were conducted to stalls facing the archiepiscopal throne, 
where sat the Archbishop in his resplendent sacerdotal robes 

1 On Palm Sunday children may be heard singing a ditty which 
may be thus rendered — 

" Palm, Palm, Palm Sunday, 
Koli6 fish we eat to-day. 
And when comes next Sunday round 
We'll eat red-dyed eggs so gay ! " 



168 Greece of the Hellenes 

and mitre, glittering with gold and gems. Near us was 
extended the epitdphios to which the Orthodox worshippers, 
as they entered the sacred building, advanced reverently to 
kiss the semblance of the dead Saviour. Every class of the 
Orthodox community was represented in the congregation, 
from the polished Russian and Roumanian diplomat and 
Greek notable to the ragged and bare-footed gamin, who, 
unreproved by pompous verger or beadle, pushed his way 
through the throng to take the place to which, as a son of the 
Church, he had an equal right with every other worshipper. 
When the ritual of chant and prayer had been performed, 
lighted tapers were distributed, the dead Christ was taken 
up by the clergy, and carried outside and round the walled 
courtyard of the Church, followed by the whole congregation. 
As we again approached the great western doors, after making 
the circuit of the church, the light of the many tapers disclosed 
what we had not previously observed, a dozen or so of 
zaptiehs seated, rifle in hand, within the courtyard gateway — 
the guard sent by the Turkish authorities to prevent any dis- 
turbance of the rites of the Christians by the Jewish populace, 
here made bold by their superior numbers. At Athens, how- 
ever, when the Easter Eve Burial Dirge has been sung, the 
procession, preceded by torchbearers and a military band with 
muffled drums playing appropriately lugubrious music, issues 
from every church of importance. On its route the windows, 
balconies, and in some cases also the walls of the houses are 
illuminated. The priests wear their most gorgeous vestments, 
one carrying a copy of the Gospels from which he at intervals 
intones a passage, another bearing aloft the Great Cross. 
Behind the clergy is borne the sacred Bier, and ever and anon 
rises on the air the doleful refrain of Kyrie eleison ! Kyrie 
eleison ! AU the spectators in the streets carry lighted tapers 
and, as the procession approaches, raise them on high, 
thus giving to the ceremonial a setting of enthusiastic 
solemnity. 

The Resurrection is commemorated by the Eastern Church 



Festal Life 169 

in a service which begins shortly before midnight on Saturday, 
when a ceremony takes place similar to that performed in 
the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. On the stroke 

of midnight the Archbishop or chief officiating 

The priest presents to the congregation a lighted 

^^Morn ^°" taper with the words, " Arise, and take the 

flame from the Eternal Light, and praise 
Christ, who is risen from the dead ! " " Truly is He risen ! " 
enthusiastically respond the congregation as those in front 
eagerly advance and, lighting their tapers from his, pass on the 
flame to those behind them until the taper of every wor- 
shipper is kindled. And then through the church resounds 
the triumphant Resurrection-song — 

" Christ has arisen from the dead. 
By death He death hath trampled on, 
To those laid in the graves Life having given ! " ^ 

The bells now ring jubilantly, cannon and small arms add 
to the glad uproar without, and, as the congregation disperse, 
the Easter greeting, " Christ is risen," accompanied by a kiss 
on the cheek, is given by one friend to another, responded to 
by another kiss and the words, " Truly He is risen ! " 

At the hour of early Mass the churches are again crowded 
with worshippers who have been shriven on the previous day 
and now partake of the Communion. At its conclusion 
more salutations of " Christ is risen " are exchanged as they 
wend their way homewards to breakfast on red eggs, Easter 
cakes, and coffee. The Paschal lamb will already in every 
household have been slain in readiness for the noontide feast, 
and its blood sprinkled on the doorposts. And now, as an old 
English writer says, " they run into such excesses of mirth 
and riot, agreeable to the light and vain humour of that 
people, that they seem to be revenged of their late sobriety, 

^ XpurrSi aviari) ^K veKpwv 
Oavdrcf) ddvarov irar'fitTas 
Kal raits iv rots fivfi/xas fw^»' x*/""'''/* **'*'*• 



170 Greece of the Hellenes 

and to make compensation to the devil for their late temper- 
ance and mortification towards God."^ The day is given up 
to relaxation and feasting, the most important event for 
the women and girls especially being the public promenade 
in the afternoon, for which they don their new summer 
dresses, the preparation of which has, it may well be sup- 
posed, much occupied their minds during the season of 
mortification. 

The Greeks would seem to have assimilated to a greater 
extent than any other Christian nation the heathen festivals 

and observations of their ancestors, and the 
Survfvals classical genii loci have, in many instances, 

only slightly changed their names. At 
sanctuaries formerly dedicated to the Sun {'HXto?), homage 
is now paid to the Prophet — or rather " Saint " — Elias, 
and many a mountain summit and sea-girt promontory is, 
as of old, sacred to him. Power over rain is also attributed 
to this Saint, and in time of drought people flock to his 
churches and monasteries to supplicate the Sun-god in his 
other character of " The Rainy (ofi^pio^) Zeus." Athena, 
the divine Virgin {'rrap0evo<;) , is now the Panaghia 
{Travayla), the "All Holy" Virgin Mother, who has also 
usurped the place of Eos, the Dawn or " Mother of the Sun," 
who opens for him the gates of the East. The Christian cele- 
brations of the annual festivals of these saints are, conse- 
quently, in many cases merely survivals of pagan anniver- 
saries, held at the church or monastery dedicated to the saint 
who has replaced the heathen divinity. 

At the more celebrated of these Panegh^ria, as they are 
termed, a kind of fair is held, resorted to by crowds of visitors 

from the country round and the adjacent 
" Paneghf na. ' ' ^^^j^g^ ^j^q j^a^y ^g geen wending their way 

along the mountain-paths leading to the 
monastery, men and women mounted on mules or donkeys, 

1 Sir Paul Ricaut, The Present State of the Greek and Armenian 
Churches. 



Festal Life 171 

or leading horses laden with panniers full of little ones. On 
arriving, the devotees at once repair to the church, and, 
after lighting the customary taper, their first care is to pay 
to the shrine of the Panaghia or other tutelar saint any vow 
which they may have made during the past year in earnest 
of benefits asked or received through his or her mediation. 
These offerings often take the shape of a gold or silver aureole 
for the eikon of the Saint, or a hand or arm of thin silver, 
which is fastened on that part of the painting. Gold coins, 
too, are often stuck on the cheek of the Panaghia, and 
napkins, embroidered with a representation in gold thread of 
the Queen of Heaven, presented to her shrine in return for 
favours received. As the accommodation afforded by the 
neighbouring villages is generally quite inadequate for the 
number of pilgrims, many sleep in the church, and the votive 
offerings which the visitors leave behind in return for this 
indulgence constitute quite a little revenue for the monks or 
priests who are the custodians of the shrine. 

Their pious duties accomplished, the pilgrims turn their 
attention to feasting and merry-making. For at meal-times 
the whole company, throwing off for the time being their 
ordinary exclusiveness, unite in a gigantic picnic on the 
green-sward, the good things they have brought with them 
being supplemented by purchases from the numerous hawkers 
of fruits, sweets, and cakes whom such an event is sure to 
attract to the neighbourhood. Dealers in other wares, too, 
are not lacking, who find plenty of customers among the 
female portion of the assembly for their gum-mastic, combs, 
little mirrors and cosmetics; purchasers of the last- 
mentioned articles may occasionally be found hidden behind 
the giant bole of a plane-tree putting a few finishing touches 
to their eyes or cheeks before joining in the revelry. Music, 
singing, dancing, and story-telling are the chief amusements, 
which are kept up to what is considered in the East a late 
hour. At dawn, however, they are all astir again for 
early Mass, to which they are summoned by the convent 



172 Greece of the Hellenes 

bell, or the s^mandro,^ a suspended board struck by a 
mallet. 

Family Panegh^ria are also celebrated in some parts of 

the country and in the islands on the " name-day " of the 

paterfamilias. The housewife on the eve of 

<< The 

Beggar's Cake " ^^^^ ^^y bakes five loaves which, after 
having been taken to church and blessed, 
are cut up and distributed to the poor. On certain feast 
days a large cake, called a peta, is prepared for the use of the 
family, and a similar one is made for the beggars who may 
call during the day. To refuse a piece to any one who may 
ask for it would, it is believed, bring all manner of misfortune 
to the house. A beggar is, indeed, never at any time sent 
away from even the poorest cottage door without at least 
a handful of olives or an onion. And I have heard that, 
during a period of scarcity caused by the failure of the grain 
harvest in Thessaly some years ago, it was no uncommon 
thing for a beggar to exchange the pieces of bread which he 
had received at the doors of the wealthy for some fruit or 
vegetables from a cottager. 

The Sacred Fountains (^K'^iaajxaTo) have also their yearly 

festivals, held on the day dedicated to the patron saint who 

has supplanted the local divinity. Circum- 

Fomiteins. stances of various import have conferred 

upon many springs within the walls of 

Constantinople the reputation of possessing healing power, 

but a romantic and solitary situation in the neighbourhood 

of a cavern or grotto is the usual characteristic of an ' Aghiasma. 

On the occasion of these festivals, multitudes flock to the 

fountains, bringing with them their sick to drink the waters. 

^ Various writers on Greece and Turkey have asserted that the 
use of the symandro is due to the prohibition of bells by the Turks. 
That the s'^mandro was however in common use prior to the Turkish 
conquest is illustrated by the following lines from a contemporary Greek 
ballad describing the Conquest of Constantinople — 

" Haghia Sofia is taken, too, they've seized the famous Minster 
Which has three hundred svmandro, bells sixty-two of metal." 



Festal Life 173 

These springs do not, however, as a rule, possess medicinal 
qualities, but owe their healing virtues solely to belief in the 
patronage of the tutelar saint. The shrubs and bushes in the 
vicinity are usually found decorated with tufts of hair and 
scraps of clothing, affixed as reminders by suppliants for 
the saint's favours. The caves in which the crystal drops 
of water appear to be distilled from the living rock were 
no less delighted in by the nymphs of antiquity than were 
the perennial springs ; but all such natural temples are now 
appropriated by the Virgin Queen of Heaven, and a 
Panaghia Spelaiotissa, or " Virgin of the Grotto," now receives 
from the Greek peasant women honours similar to those paid 
in classical times to the nymphs of whose temples she has 
usurped possession. 

The Feast of the Annunciation, on which the Orthodox 
generally make high holiday, assumes in certain localities 

the character of a Paneghyri, and especially 
Day^arSs. ^* Tenos, that island being honoured with 

the possession of a miracle-working Virgin 
whose image was, in 1821, discovered in the waters of a 
fountain near the Cathedral church of the Evangelistria. 
Thither flock twice every year, on Annunciation Day and on 
the Feast of the Assumption, the sick and the afflicted, 
together with a larger number of those who are whole. 
Already on the eve of the festival the courtyard and steps of 
the Cathedral are crowded with votaries, while down in the 
crypt lie huddled in their rags on the stone floor those who 
hope to obtain healing by passing the night there in a foetid 
atmosphere.* Within the church some of the clergy hold 
platters for contributions, and at intervals, crosses to be 
kissed by the devout, while the deacons take down the names 
of those desirous of participating in certain special ceremonies. 
After nightfall, the church, the houses of the little town and 

^ Cures similar to those effected at Lourdes, are, it is said, of not 
infrequent occurrence at Tenos when the disorder is merely of a nervous 
character. 



174 Greece of the Hellenes 

the ships in the harbour scintillate with myriads of Hghts 
reflected in the surrounding waters, while in and around the 
church, as also in the streets and in the surrounding gardens 
and fields, lie, wrapped in their cloaks, singly, or in family 
groups, the pilgrims for whom no accommodation can be 
found in the overcrowded inns and private houses. _ 

At dawn all this great concourse — which not infrequently ■ 
numbers some 60,000 souls — are already astir and performing 
their religious duties preliminary to the chief function of 
Annunciation Day, the grand procession. With crosses, 
banners, swinging censers and chanting priests in gorgeous 
vestments, it emerges from the church, descends the wide 
marble steps between the marble lions of St. Mark — a legacy 
of Venetian rule, — ^winds slowly through the streets of the 
little town down to the shore and back to the sacred portals, 
amidst a surging crowd of the Orthodox representing many 
different tj^pes, and an even greater divergence of costume. 
For as this festival at Tenos draws pilgrims not only from the 
Greek mainland but from all the coastlands and islands of 
the iEgean between Crete and Constantinople, it offers the 
most favourable opportunity possible for obtaining an idea 
of how varied and picturesque was national costume generally 
in the East in the first half of last century. With the return 
of the procession to the church the crowd breaks up, and its 
various elements abandon themselves to the above described 
diversions, which are common to all Paneghyria. 

The sacred banner of Greek Independence having been in 
1821 unfurled at Kalavryta by Bishop Germanos on the 

Feast of the Annunciation, this festival is 
" Independence j^ade by the Hellenes generally the occasion 

of a double celebration, national as well as 
religious. In Athens, for instance, eloquent patriotic 
addresses are annually delivered to various gatherings of 
townsfolk, there is great firing of cannon from the batteries 
of the city, flags flutter in the breeze in all directions, while in 
the Cathedral a solemn commemorative service takes place, at 



Festal Life 175 

which the King and Royal Family attend in state. A levee is 
subsequently held at the Palace at which all the notabilities 
of Athenian Society, native and foreign, and all the chief 
State functionaries, civil as well as naval and military, 
assemble, as on New Year's Day, to pay their respects to the 
Hellenic monarchy. 

St. George being the patron saint of the Greeks, his festival 

is also duly honoured. During the reign of the late King, 

whose name day it of course was, St. George's 

' DaT^^ ^ ^^y received at Athens additional honours. 

Notwithstanding, however, his distinguished 

position in Orthodox haghiology, St. George is, in the popular 

songs and stories relating to him, chiefly remarkable for his 

exceedingly acquisitive disposition and amenability to bribery 

in the shape of oil and candles, ever ready to give his saintly 

aid to the highest bidder for it whether implored by human 

beings or animals, and whether for a good purpose, or for 

one in the highest degree questionable. 

The chief diversions of the pilgrims and holiday-makers 
on these festive occasions, as also of the rural population at all 
times, are dancing and singing ; for the dance and the song 
are still at the present day as common characteristics of 
sunny Hellas as they were in olden times. In the larger towns 
and in some of the islands the dances in vogue are more or 
less those of Europe generally. But in the rural districts 
the native dances are still popular, the most common varieties 
of these being the Syrtos, the Tsamikos, ^ and the Leventikos, 
all of which are, as a rule, danced in the open air. In the first, 
in which both men and women take part, either together or 
separately, the dancers stand in a curved line connected by 
handkerchiefs of which each holds a corner. The steps are few 
and the movements slow and sedate, the women and girls 
invariably dancing with modest mien and downcast eyes. 
The leader, who stands at the right extremity of the line, 

^ The dance of the Tsams, or Chams, as the southern Albanians are 
termed. 



176 Greece of the Hellenes 

draws it this way and that, the figures of the dancers swaying 
with the rhythm of the accompanying song. At Megara and 
some other places this dance is varied by the hands of the 
performers being Unked together across each alternate dancer, 
the leader grasping with her left hand the left hand of her 
neighbour who, with her right hand takes the right hand of 
the third, and so on. This method is termed the klistos horos, 
or " closed dance," and men, married women and girls form 
respectively separate sets for its performance. On the 
Tuesday of Easter week crowds of visitors from Athens 
repair to the township of Megara to witness the perform- 
ance of this dance by the women, who here still wear the 
brightly-coloured and picturesque native dress. 

The Tsamikos is danced by men only. The performers are 
connected by handkerchiefs, as in the syrtos horost but the 
dancing is all done by the occupant of the right-hand extremity 
of the line, the rest, as they follow him, merely marking the 
rhythm with their feet and singing. The leader meanwhile 
moves backwards and forwards performing a variety of steps 
— ^leaping, falling on one knee, performing feats of equilibrium, 
and waving a handkerchief with his free hand. When fatigued 
with these exertions he cedes his place to the performer on 
his left, and each in turn endeavours to surpass his fellows in 
feats of agility. This dance has many local varieties with 
special names, one of which is supposed to be a survival of 
the Pyrrhic dance of Albania. This has all the characteristics 
of a war dance, and is much affected by soldiers of both races. 
At the bivouac, or before the wayside hostelry, wherever 
indeed an opportunity offers, will gather a group of youths 
with lissome bodies, and it may be long classic faces, who, 
forming a ring, circle round interminably, leaping and shouting 
to the rhythm of their own wild songs. 

The Leventikos is of a quite different character. Two men, 
or women, stand a few feet apart facing in the same direction 
and perform steps consisting of forward and backward 
movements with occasional upward leaps, the dancers clapping 



Festal Life 177 

their hands throughout to mark the measure and maintaining 
their original distance from one another, at intervals returning 
to the spot from which they started. 

The music with which these rural dances are most generally 
accompanied is supplied by a primitive kind of mandolin, 
the three-stringed oval viol, the reed pipe and the drum, and 
also by the voice. Indeed, when women and girls dance by 
themselves on ordinary occasions it is, as a rule, to the accom- 
paniment of their own voices alone. The songs reserved for 
such occasions are different for men and women, those peculiar 
to the men being often of a martial nature, especially in the 
case of the Tsamikos, or Pyrrhic dance. The dancing-songs 
of the women and girls are often of a humorous, and occasion- 
ally of a pathetic character ; but for the most part they deal 
with the romantic side of rural and pastoral hfe, and are full 
of the rich imagery of flowers, fruit, gold, silver and jewels, 
characteristic of Greek love-songs generally. The majority 
are sung antiphonically by two sets of voices, or in the form 
of a solo and chorus. Very frequently they form a dialogue 
between a youth and maiden as in the following-^ 

[Strophe.) " O Lassie mine, with dusky brow. 
Wilt thou no pity for me show ? 
[Antistrophe.) Why still stand with scornful air, 
While I am dying of despair ? 
Lean from, thy lattice, lassie mine. 
They steal the blossoms from thy bine ! 

(Ant.) If forth I lean, what think' st to gain ? 

Thou wilt get naught to ease thy pain. 
Come, lassie, to thy doorway then. 
An eagle's carrying off thy hen ! 

{Ant.) And if I do, what gain have you ? — 

Rake, with your fez cocked all askew ! 
Come to thy porch, and be not coy. 
Long may'st thou live, thy mother's joy ! 

{Ant.) And if I come, what wilt thou gain ? — 
That will not rid thee of thy pain I 
O lassie mine, with dusky brow. 
Why art so cruel to me now ? 

{Ant.) Who has kissed thy lips, my dear? — 
Lips extolled both far and near I 
12— (2385) 



178 Greece of the Hellenes 

One who so sweetly sang to me, 
But now has journey'd o'er the sea. 
(Ant.) Say, what can I find to send, 

To my love, my faithful friend ? 
Should I an apple send, 'twould dry ; 
A thirty -petalled rose, 'twould die ; 

(Ant.) A quince, it soon would shrivelled lie, 
And he would gaze on it, and sigh. 
My tears unto my love I'll send. 
Which from my eyes stream without end, 
(Ant.) Upon this rose-red kerchief, see, 

And let him send it back to me I " 

In another class of dancing-songs every line is alternated 
with a refrain ; and in the following specimen from Thessaly 
will be found expressed the idea contained in Shakespeare's 
exquisite lines beginning, " Tell me, where is Fancy bred ? " 

(Strophe.) " Now would I set a dance a-foot, — 
(Antistrophe.) My early-wedded lassie! 

That all the world may learn it, — 

Betrothed so young, my lassie / 
May learn it, and take heed to them,^ — 

My early-wedded lassie ! 
How Love doth seize upon us : — 

Betrothed so young, my lassie I 
It through the eyes takes hold on us, — 

My early-wedded lassie ! 
And roots itself within the heart, — 

Betrothed so young, my lassie I 
Puts forth its roots and lifts its crest, — 

My early-wedded lassie I 
It's green and leafy branches, — 

Betrothed so young, my lassie ! 
Bursts out in blossoms red and gay. 

My early-wedded lassie ! 
The flowers of Love these blossoms, — 

Betrothed so young, my lassie ! 
And in the bosoms of these flowers, — 

My early-wedded lassie I 
The bees are ever sipping, — 

Betrothed so young, my lassie I " 



CHAPTER XIV 

CLASSIC SURVIVALS 

Transformed though we have found so many of the old 
classical divinities to have been into Madonnas and Christian 
saints, a goodly number still survive in their ancient forms 
and endowed with exclusively pagan attributes. The 
" Genius " (o-toix^Iov) still haunts 

" Spring and vale. 
Edged with poplar pale," 

and is often both heard and seen by lonely shepherd, belated 
traveller, or village maiden who has put off until sunset her 
daily task of drawing water at the sylvan spring. To the 
first he may appear as a man-eating monster, but the last 
he invites in seductive language to visit the beautiful palace 
in which he resides beneath the water of his well or fountain. 
Some Stoicheia, like the hamadryads of old, dwell in the 
trees, but have the same propensities as their brethren inhabit- 
ing the mountains, rocks, and waters, and can only be slain 
by that popular hero of Greek folk-song, " The Widow's 
Son," or by the youngest of three brothers ; and many 
accounts of such contests are to be met with both in folk- 
ballad and folk-tale. These Stoicheia are evidently the sur- 
vivors of the beings referred to by St. Paul as " the weak and 
beggarly elements whereunto ye desire again to be in bond- 
age " ; the " rulers of the darkness of this world " ; the 
" rudiments of the world," etc, ; and the translation of the 
word aroLx&la as " rudiments " or " elements," which has 
also been followed in the Revised Version, completely obscures 
what appears to be far more probably the meaning of these 

179 



180 Greece of the Hellenes 

passages. '^ In the Apostle's use of the phrase rh arotxeia 
rov Koa-jxov, he seems to attribute a distinct personaUty to 
these genii, or spirits of the universe. 

The Drakos, though he resembles the Stoicheion in his 
characteristics of haunting mountainous and lonely places, 
and waging war against mortals, in other respects closely 
resembles the Rakshasa of Deccan tales, the Troll of Scan- 
dinavia, and the Giant of our own nursery stories. Like the 
generahty of these creations of popular fancy, he is big and 
stupid, and easily outwitted by a crafty and courageous 
hero. These heroes are, like the slayers of Stoicheia, generally 
widows' sons, or the youngest of three brothers, but a Beardless 
Man also plays a prominent part in such adventures. The 
Drakos has also sometimes a wife, the Drakissa, who is 
endowed with propensities similar to those of her husband. 
The Nereids, Lamias, and Sirens have also survived, and 
display very much the same propensities as their classical 
prototypes. The Nereids, though they occupy in the popular 
imagination of the Greeks a place similar to the Fairies of 
more northern countries, and are like them proverbial for 
their beauty, differ from them in being always of the full 
stature of mortals, and also in being almost universally 
malevolent. Like the Stoicheia, they haunt fountains, wells, 
rivers, mountains, sea-caves, and other lonely places, and 
generally shun human society. Though, as a rule, solitary 
in their habits, they may occasionally be seen dressed in 
white, dancing in companies in moonlit glades, or on the 
glistening sands of lonely isles and promontories. It is fatal 
to see them crossing a river, unless a priest be at hand to 
read passages of Scripture, and so counteract the spells of 
the " Devil's Daughters," as they are sometimes called. 

It is usual, however, to propitiate the Nereids by some 

complimentary epithet, such as " the Beautiful " or " the 

Good Ladies," in the same way as the Furies were formerly 

termed the Evmenides, and as the ill-omened owl is, at the 

1 See Geldart, Modern Greek, pp. 201-5. 



I 



Classic Survivals 181 

present day, euphemistically called the " Bird of Joy " 
{xapoTrovki). They are said to have the power of banefully 
affecting women of whose beauty they are jealous, and to 
be in the habit of carrying off young children, if they are 
allowed to approach their haunts unprotected. Their fancy 
for new-born infants is, as I have already noted in the chapter 
dealing with family ceremonies, a source of great anxiety to 
mothers and nurses. All kinds of maladies are attributed to 
the malevolence of the " Beautiful Ladies," and the women and 
children thus afflicted are termed " possessed" {vvfji<po\v7rTai<;) , 
and can only be cured by residence in a church or convent, 
or by pilgrimage to some holy shrine. They also occasionally 
fall in love with men whom — if they return their affection 
and prove faithful to them — they reward with great pros- 
perity ; but if the mortal they deign to favour with their 
notice ventures to slight their advances, the Nereids revenge 
themselves by afflicting him with some dire calamity. 
They possess this power chiefly at the noontide hour, when 
they rest under the shade of trees, usually planes and 
poplars, and near springs and streams ; and the wary peasant, 
fearful of the consequences of annoying these capricious 
beings, will carefully abstain from disturbing their repose. 
Phenomena of nature, such as whirlwinds and storms, are 
ascribed to the agency of the Nereids, and it is customary 
to crouch down while they are supposed to be passing over- 
head. If this precaution is not taken, the Nereids seize the 
too irreverent individual, and carry him or her off to the 
mountains. Offerings of milk, honey, and cakes are made 
to them, and placed in certain spots which they are believed 
to frequent, and the country women, when they see the 
wind-driven cloud scudding overhead, mutter " honey and 
milk ! " {fii\7)-ya\a) to avert all evil from themselves. Storms 
are, indeed, in the East, inseparably connected with, or rather 
regarded as, demons, whose wild flights from place to place 
cause these elemental disturbances, and the church bells are 
rung to drive them away. Tempestuous weather is also 



182 Greece of the Hellenes 

sometimes attributed to the festivities attendant upon a 
wedding among the Nereids. 

The Httle water-spouts formed of gathered wreaths of 
spray so often seen in the ^gean Sea, are looked upon with 
great awe by the dwellers in the islands and on the seaboard. 
" The Lamia of the Sea is abroad," say the peasants and 
lisherfolk, when they see the wind-driven spray-wreaths ; 
and having recourse to Christian aid when frightened by 
pagan superstitions, and vice versa, they cross themselves 
repeatedly and mutter prayers to the Panaghia for protection 
against these demons of the air and water. The Lamiae are 
generally described as ill-favoured and evilly-disposed women 
who haunt desert places and seashores. Sometimes, however, 
they take the form of beautiful women, who, like the Sirens, 
lure men to destruction by their sweet voices and graceful 
dancing, or lay wagers with them, in which the mortal is 
sure to be the loser. Occasionally, too, under the semblance 
of distressed damsels who have let a ring fall into the water, 
they entice unwary youths into their abodes. There are stories 
of Lamiae who have wedded mortals and borne children to 
them. But woe to the man who has such a helpmate. For 
she can neither spin, weave, knit, nor sew, and is equally 
incapable of sweeping, cooking, baking, or taking care of the 
domestic animals. So firm a hold has this belief on the popular 
mind, that the expression, " a Lamia's sweepings," exists 
as a domestic proverb, generally applied by indignant 
housewives to a careless use of the broom. 

The Fates (Motpat) of to-day also closely resemble their 
classical prototypes, being represented as continually engaged in 
spinning the thread sjntnbolical of the life of man, and presiding 
more especially over the three great events of his existence, 
birth, marriage, and death — ^the " Three Evils of Destiny " 
{to, rpta KaKOb tt}? Mo/pa<?) — a very significantly pessimistic 
phrase. Although the Fates are perpetually roaming about 
in the fulfilment of their arduous labours, the peaks of Ol3mipus 
constitute their special abode ; and it is to this Mountain of 



Classic Survivals 183 

the Gods that those who desire their assistance turn to utter 
the invocation — 

" O ! from the summit of Olympus high. 
From the three limits of the sky, 

Where dwell the dealers out of destinies. 
May now my own Fate^ear me, 
And, hearing, hover near me ! " 

The most ghastly of Greek popular superstitions is, how- 
ever, that of the Vampire, generally known on the Greek 
mainland by the Slavonic name of Vrykolakas, but in Crete 
and in Rhodes by the thoroughly Hellenic designation of 
Katakhnds. In Cyprus it is termed Sarkomenos, the " Fleshy 
One " ; and in Tenos, Anaikathoumenos, the " Restless One." 
For a Vampire is not a disembodied spirit but an undissolved 
body. As elsewhere mentioned, it is customary with the 
Greeks to exhume the body of a deceased relative at the end 
of three years in order to ascertain whether it is duly decom- 
posed. Should this not be the case, the dead man — the 
Vrykolakas is generally of the masculine sex — is supposed to 
be possessed of the power of rising from the grave and roaming 
abroad, revelling in the blood of his victims. The causes of 
vampirism are various, and among them are the following : 
having either perpetrated, or having been the victim of a 
crime ; having wronged some person, who has died resenting 
the wrong ; or it is the consequence of a curse, pronounced 
either in excommunicatory form by a priest, ^ or by a person to 
whom an injury has been done, as in the folk-song of " The 
Old Man's Bride "— 

" Cursed may my mother be ; and Earth, dissolve not in thy bosom 
The go-between whom she employed to settle my betrothal ! " 

" May the earth not eat you ! " (Na yu,^ cre ^dij ij 7^9 !), is 
a common expression in the mouth of an angry Greek. 

^ Part of this ecclesiastical curse runs thus : " Lei him be separated 
from the Lord God Creator, and lie accursed and unpardoned and indis- 
soluble after death in this world and in that which is to come. Let wood, 
stones, and iron be dissolved, but let him be undissolved." 



184 Greece of the Hellenes 

Vampirism is believed to be hereditary in certain families, 
the members of which are regarded with aversion by their 
neighbours and shunned as much as possible. It is generally 
believed that the vampire retires to his grave before cock- 
crow, but some maintain that he visits it only once a week, 
on the Saturday. When it is discovered that such a Vryko- 
lakas is about, the people go on a Saturday and open his 
tomb, where they always find his body just as it was buried, 
and entirely undecomposed. The priest who accompanies 
them reads certain parts of the ritual believed to be of 
peculiar efficacy for putting a stop to the restless wanderings 
of vampires, and sometimes this course suffices to restore 
the neighbourhood to peace and quiet. But cases happen 
in which the priest is not a sufficiently powerful exorcist ; 
and, when all his endeavours have proved inefficacious, the 
people of the neighbourhood go to the tomb on a Saturday, 
and either drive a stake through the heart of the undissolving 
corpse, or take out the body and consume it with fire. 
Nothing short of extreme necessity would, however, make 
Orthodox Greeks consent to perform such an act, as they 
have a religious horror of consuming with fire a body on which 
the holy chrism has been poured by the priest when perform- 
ing the last rites of his religion. A touching story is told 
in folk-song of a dead man who, though the earth had begun 
the process of " eating " him, was called from his grave by 
the passionate entreaties of his mother, reminding him of his 
promise to bring back to her his sister who had been married 
to a bridegroom from Babylon. The Greek poet, Valaorites, 
also describes, in a splendidly realistic poem, the rousing 
from their graves of the tyrant, Ali Pasha of Tepelen, and 
his Greek Heutenant, Thanase Vaghia, by the vampires of 
the massacred inhabitants of Gardiki ; and one of the most 
thrilling modern vampire stories I have met with is that 
related by Mr. Pashley in his Travels in Crete. 

In the East no laws, ecclesiastical or secular, appear to 
exist interfering with the calling of Witches, and especially 



Classic Survivals 185 

in Thessaly, famous of old for its mdyissas, they and their 
powers are held in great estimation by members of all creeds. 
To the Witch repair love-sick maidens and jealous wives, 
childless women and mothers with ailing children, seekers of 
lost or stolen property, and for each of her clients the wise 
woman has a specific. Like the Witch of Theocritus, she 
makes use of the magic power of moonlight to compose her 
spells and potions ; or, crouching hag-like over her charcoal 
brazier, throws on the glowing embers with strange incanta- 
tions, laurel-leaves, salt, flour, or cloves. Faithless lovers 
had need beware, and furnish themselves with counter-spells, 
when deserted maidens have recourse to the aid of the mdyissa. 
with whose aid a " wasting curse " may be laid on the 
offender. Some of these curses are thus expressed : " May'st 
thou (naming the person) become attenuated as a thread ; 
and pass through a needle's eye." " May'st thou become 
small as my finger ! " while others are in the form of a distich, 
as for instance — 

" Be, who scorns to love this maid, 
Five years on a sick-bed laid ! " 

Fortune-telling is also largely practised by the mdyissas, 
and is performed by means of cards, or a tray of beans, coins, 
and other small objects, manipulated according to some 
form of calculation. Some years ago I formed one of a party 
of resident Europeans at a Witch's fortune-telling in the 
Greek quarter of Salonica. The abode of the " spay- wife " 
was a spacious but gloomy apartment, with a tiny barred 
window and cavernous chimney-place. Amid the darkness 
of the unceiled rafters flitted ghostly white pigeons, and when, 
after a little while, our eyes had become accustomed to the 
dimness, we descried the typical black cat, whose green eyes 
regarded us suspiciously from one of the smoke-blackened 
crossbeams overhead. If " the oracles are dumb," dreams 
now serve as a very good substitute for them, and the woman 
who is not fortunate enough to possess an 'Ov€i,poKpi,T7)<;, or 



186 Greece of the Hellenes 

" Dream-book " of her own has recourse to the skill of the 
wise woman, who interprets her dream by means of certain 
formulas which have probably been handed down from the 
remotest antiquity. For magical secrets are generally heredi- 
tary in families, and the daughter, as a rule, succeeds the 
mother as village mdyissa. In addition to her power of 
" spaying fortunes," the witch is also able to aid a person 
who has been the victim of a robbery to discover the thief. 
A considerable branch of the Witch's trade also consists in 
providing besides love-spells and potions, other spells of 
less innocent intention. Persons believing themselves to 
be sufferers from the effects of magic — for a hint is gener- 
ally conveyed to the subject of the spell — must naturally 
have recourse to the Witch to remove it. Her skill, too, is 
called in request when ordinary means fail to exercise that 
most dreaded of all mysterious powers, the " evil eye." For, 
notwithstanding the innumerable antidotes used to avert it, 
persons are often found to be suffering from the effects of the 
enviously malignant gaze of some evilly-disposed neighbour. 
Fumigations of various kinds are most frequently resorted 
to in order to dispel the baneful influence, a sprig of oHve, 
a palm branch blessed by the priest on Palm Sunday, or, if 
it can be procured, a scrap of the suspected person's dress 
being usually burnt for this purpose. It would, however, 
be difficult to enumerate all the means to which recourse is 
had for dissipating the effects of the evil eye, as they are as 
numerous as the preservatives against it. Among the latter 
are gold coins, pointed bits of coral, blue glass, cloves of 
garlic, blood-stones, cornelians, and crosses, which are worn 
on the person, or fastened to the headstalls of horses, mules, 
and donkeys, and the horse-shoes, boars' tusks, and hares' 
heads hung on the walls of houses and other buildings to 
preserve them from this baneful and mysterious power. 
Blue glass bracelets are frequently worn by girls and young 
women for the purpose of averting the evil eye, and when 
they get broken — which, considering the material of which 



Classic Survivals 187 

they are made, is sure to happen sooner or later — ^the event 
is attributed to the mdtiasma having luckily fallen upon them 
instead of upon their owners. 

An amusing illustration of this superstition was once 
afforded me when visiting an old lady from the island of 
Tenos. Her little grandson who had just arrived from Europe, 
was, during luncheon, an object of great interest to his 
grandmother and aunts, who overwhelmed him with lauda- 
tions. To every complimentary remark, however, made to 
or about him by either this lady or her daughters, another 
would exclaim in Greek " No, no ! garhc, garlic ! " at the 
same time pointing two outstretched fingers at the child 
thus threatened with the evil eye. For this baneful influence 
may also be cast unwittingly, and without malice prepense, 
and seems in this respect to be a survival of the ancient 
notion of the " envy of the gods." It is, indeed, impossible 
in the Levant to speak admiringly or approvingly of any 
person or thing without being met with the exclamation, 
" Ah ! don't give it the evil eye ! " On another occasion 
the child of a friend of mine having appeared to his devoted 
old nurse, a Greek woman from the Island of Nicaria, to 
be ailing and out of sorts, she at once concluded that the 
baby was matiasmenos, and persuaded her mistress to 
allow her to send for a compatriot skilled in such matters. 
The wise woman arrived, and I accompanied the mother 
into the nursery, where we found the infant divested of its 
clothing, and stretched on the bed on a square of red cloth. 
Little piles of lighted hemp were smoking like miniature 
altars at each corner, and the old hag was performing a series 
of manipulations with the child's limbs, alternately crossing 
its right leg over its left shoulder, and its left leg over its 
right shoulder, interspersing these movements with blowings 
and attentions to the altars. The little patient appeared 
greatly to enjoy the operation, as he crowed and laughed all 
the time in the face of the Witch ; and when it was concluded 
he seemed to have recovered his wonted livehness. Possibly, 



188 Greece of the Hellenes 

however, the sign of the cross made with the baby's Umbs 
while thus " passing it through the fire " represented the 
symbol of the pagan Sungod, rather than that of the Christian 
Saviour ? 

Some people are quite notorious for their power of casting 
the evil eye, and, though the propensity is much dreaded, 
they enjoy a certain amount of consideration, as their neigh- 
bours are naturally careful not to offend them in any way. 
Red-haired persons are particularly suspected, and blue or 
grey eyes, being comparatively rare in the East, are con- 
sidered especially baneful. The latter defect in my personal 
appearance more than once caused me to be accused of 
exercising this spell, I happened one spring day to stop in 
a village street to watch a pair of storks who were busily 
employed repairing their nests in a C5rpress-tree, to which they 
had just returned from their winter quarters, and was thus 
all unconscious that two low-class Greeks were approaching 
between me and the objects of my attention. A volley of 
vituperative language, however, in which my eyes were 
vehemently anathematised, recalled my attention to earth, 
and I was glad to hurry away in an opposite direction to 
escape the resentment of the men, who believed me to have 
given them the evil eye, or, in the old-English phrase, to have 
" overlooked them." 

It would prove a stupendous task to collect all the folk- 
beliefs and customs of the Greeks, so connected are they 
with every detail of domestic life, and with such varied cir- 
cumstances, and one generally learns them only by trans- 
gressing them. Great was the dismay of the old Greek nurse 
above mentioned when I showed her one morning a soft, 
fluffy little owlet, which I had found between the persienne 
and the window of my room. " It was a sign of death," 
she cried, and some terrible calamity was sure to happen in 
the family. By a strange coincidence, a pet kid which was 
kept in the garden was on that morning found dead ; and 
after this fatality there was no gainsaying the superstition. 



Classic Survivals 189 

This evil reputation in the Islands and elsewhere in the Levant 
of the owl is the more curious as, in Athens — no doubt on 
account of its ancient connection with Pallas-Athena — ^this 
bird is considered lucky. The most trivial circumstances, 
too, connected with the birth of a child are considered good 
or bad omens, according to the interpretation given to them. 
Trifling accidents happening on a wedding-day have a gloomy 
signification, as have also the breaking of a looking-glass, 
the accidental spilling of oil (to spill wine, however, is lucky), 
sweeping the house after the master has departed on a journey, 
meeting a funeral or a priest, a hare crossing the path, and 
a thousand other little everyday occurrences. Things 
lucky and things unlucky, things to be done and things not 
to be done, would, indeed, make a long list. 

Among folk-customs may, perhaps, be included the pecuhar 
gestures which are used as a common mode of expression 
dispensing with words, or accompanied only by a mono- 
syllable. The sign of the negative the ananevein (avaveveiv), 
of the ancient Greeks — consists of throwing back the head, 
and making at the same time a sHght noise with the tongue 
and front teeth. To denote that a person is stingy or miserly, 
the tip of the thumb is placed behind the front teeth. Utter 
disapprobation and contempt of another is expressed by 
taking hold of the upper part of one's dress with the finger 
and thumb of the right hand and shaking it with the ejacu- 
lation, " Na ! "v And the climax of contumely appears 
to be reached when, after a dispute, one of the parties 
stretches out his hand towards the other's face with the 
words, Nd Ve (" That to thee ! ") — a survival of the 
classic pMskelon. "Under my old shoes!" is also a 
common form of insult in some localities ; and an angry 
woman of the people, quarrelling with a neighbour, concludes 
her torrent of invective with the wish, " May'st thou 
burst ! " 

The changes of the seasons are still celebrated in Greece, and 
especially the coming of the Spring and the re-birth of Nature, 



190 Greece of the Hellenes 

the swallows being welcomed in April with songs which recall 
the ;j^6\tSoz/t<ryu,a of the ancients — 

" Swallows are returning fast, 
Over wide seas they have past ; 
'Neath the eaves they build their nest. 
Sing as they from labour rest. 

" March, cold March, did snow amain, 
February came with rain ; 
April, sweetest of the year, 
Cometh now, and he is near. 

" Twitter all the birds and sing. 
All the little trees do spring ; 
Hens lay eggs, and — O good luck ! — 
Already they begin to cluck. 

" Flocks and herds, a numerous train. 
To hilly pastures mount again ; 
Goats that skip and leap and play. 
Nibbling wayside shrubs' green spray. 

" Birds and beasts and men rejoice. 
With one heart and with one voice ; 
Frosts are gone and snow-wreaths deep, 
Blust'ring Boreas now doth sleep." 

May Day is also greeted with songs sung at the doors of 
houses and observed as a rural festival, the flowers and 
The Eve green branches brought back from the family 
of excursion into the country customary on this 

St. John. ^^y being twined into wreaths and hung 
over the house or courtyard gateway. An interesting 
custom, called the " Klithona," is observed in many localities 
at the Feast of the Summer Solstice, or the " Eve of St. 
John." It is, however, as a rule, performed only in the 
family circle, and many people resident in the country are 
ignorant of it. At sunset, a large jar is filled with water 
and placed in the garden. Round it the family assemble, 
each with a leaf or a flower which he or she throws in, a 
wild dance and chant being kept up all the time. The jar is 
then carefully covered with a linen cloth, and the youngest 
of the party goes through the ceremony of " locking " it with 



Classic Survivals 191 

the house-key. It is finally set aside until the following day 
at noon, when the family assemble for the aicKiQova, or 
" unlocking." The cloth is removed, and each looks anxiously 
to see if his or her leaf or flower is floating on the water, as 
that foretells a long life, and an immersed leaf or flower an 
early death. A general sprinkling then ensues. The young 
people chase each other with glasses of water from the bowl, 
and those who receive a thorough drenching look upon it as 
a lucky omen. Singing is kept up all the time, and an occa- 
sional improvised couplet containing a sly personal allusion 
adds to the general merriment. 

In Macedonia the ceremony differs a little, and is generally 
observed only by the girls and unmarried women who often 
make up little parties for the occasion. One of the number 
is sent to fill a large jar of water at the well or fountain, with 
the injunction not to open her lips until she returns,^ no 
matter who may accost her. Into this jar each maiden 
drops some small object, such as a ring, bead, or glass bracelet. 
A cloth is then carefully tied over the mouth of the jar, which 
is left out all night under the stars. The youths of the 
neighbourhood are not infrequently on the alert to discover 
the hiding-place of the jar, which, if found, they rob of its 
contents, which the girls only recover with a forfeit. If 
all goes well, the jar is uncovered on the following evening 
at sunset, and one of the maidens, shutting her eyes, plunges 
her bared arm into the water, and, as she draws out the objects 
one by one, recites a distich which is received as an augury, 
propitious or the reverse, of the matrimonial prospects of its 
owner. In the evening the bonfire is lighted before the gate, 
and, after taking down and casting into it the now-faded 
garlands hung over the doors on May Day, the young people 
leap through the flames, fully persuaded that " the fire of 
St. John will not burn them." The couplets sung or recited 
on this occasion, though sometimes impromptu, are generally 

^ " Unspoken-over " water appears in the East to be credited with 
special virtues. 



192 Greece of the Hellenes 

culled from the national treasury of distiches, twelve hundred 
of which have been collected in Epirus alone. 

In Thessaly and Macedonia it is customary in times of 
prolonged drought to send a procession of children round to 
all the wells and springs of the neighbourhood. At their 
head walks a girl adorned with flowers, whom they drench 
with water at each halting-place while singing this invocation — 

" Perperia, all fresh bedewed. 
Freshen all the neighbourhood ; 
By the woods, on the highway. 
As thou goest, to God now pray : 
O my God, upon the plain, 
Send thou us a still, small rain ; 
That the fields may fruitful be, 
And vines in blossom we may see ; 
That the grain be full and sound, 
And wealthy grow the folks around ; 
Wheat and barley. 
Ripen early. 

Maize and cotton take firm root, 
Rice and rye and currants shoot ; 
Gladness in our gardens all. 
For the drought may fresh dews fall 
Water, water, by the pail. 
Grain in heaps beneath the flail ; 
Bushels grow from every ear. 
Each vine-stem a burden bear. 
Out with drought and poverty 
Dew and blessings let us see ! ' " 



I 



CHAPTER XV 

HOME LIFE AND WOMEN'S WORK 

The more remote the community, and the more isolated from 
contact with the outer world, the more rigid generally is found 

to be the code of social morals. In the 
of MoraL mountain villages of Crete, for instance, 

female misconduct is visited with the severest 
penalties, and even within the last century was punishable 
with death. Whenever a married woman was merely sus- 
pected of faithlessness, or an unmarried one of frailty, her 
hours were from that moment numbered, and her end was 
so tragical and so shocking, not only to all the feelings of 
natural affection, but even to the ordinary notions of humanity, 
that one can hardly believe such a practice to have been 
observed in the nineteenth century, on the very confines of 
civilised Europe, and by Christian people. Her nearest relatives 
were at once her accusers, her judges, and her executioners. 
The social position of the women of a country is, of course, 
chiefly determined by the law of marriage of the established 

religion. Hence, among the Greeks, as 
^DivoTce^"^ among all other Christian nations, the social 

position of women is determined primarily 
by that Christian law of marriage which abolished the old 
rights and privileges enjoyed by the women of the Roman 
Empire, and introduced the subjection of the wife to the 
husband in an indissoluble marriage. By the Greek Church, 
however, this general Christian law was modified so long 
ago as the eleventh century, when the Patriarch Alexius 
permitted the clergy to solemnise the second marriage of a 
divorced woman if the conduct of her first husband had 
occasioned the divorce. And at the present day little 
difficulty is experienced in dissolving an incompatible union, 

193 
13— (2385) 



194 Greece of the Hellenes 

even when there has been no misconduct on either side, and 
whether the suit be brought by husband or wife. The case 
is tried by a Council of Elders presided over by the Archbishop 
of the diocese, and the evidence is invariably heard in camera, 
thus avoiding the publicity and scandal attending divorce 
cases in the West. 

As no " Women's Property Act " has yet been added to the 
Hellenic code, the dowry of a Greek wife passes unconditionally M 

into the hands of the husband on whom she 
Women ^^^^ becomes as dependent as she previously 

was on her father, and her status remains the 
same as when marriage was still indissoluble. The women 
of Hellas, indeed, whether married or single, occupy a some- 
what peculiar position, being neither completely secluded 
from intercourse with the other sex, as among the Turks, 
nor taking socially an equal position in the family as in 
Europe generally. Leaving out of the question the small 
community of cosmopolitan ladies who constitute the native 
element in Athenian society, and who, in common with the 
wealthy and travelled women of the Levant generally, speak 
French among themselves in preference to Greek, and set the 
fashion in Parisian toilettes, Greek women can hardly, taken 
as a whole, be characterised otherwise than as social nonen- 
tities. A middle-class Greek may, for instance, ask to his 
house a new acquaintance and remain on friendly terms 
with him for years without introducing him to his family ; 
and when a number of guests have met at the small social 
gatherings which accompany betrothals and other family 
events the sexes do not mix freely, the men standing apart 
discussing the topics of the day, while the ladies congregate 
at the other end of the room engrossed in small talk, even 
the hostess receiving little further attention from her male 
visitors than a formal salute on arrival and at departure. 

Marriage being still, as of old, looked upon by the Greeks 
generally as the only fitting career for a woman, and a dot 
being also indispensable to this end, the portionless girl, even 



Home Life and Women's Work 195 

when endowed with good looks, finds herself in an awkward 
position, and more especially is this the case among the 
professional classes, as not only are there very 
GraduateJ ^^^ openings for educated women outside 
the home, but those who take advantage of 
such openings as exist — as, for instance, teaching or nursing — 
find themselves somewhat at variance with the Mrs. Grundys 
of their acquaintance. Very few Greek women have conse- 
quently taken advantage of the facilities accorded them for 
obtaining University degrees, and until about a quarter of a 
century ago, when Mdlle. Stephanopoli obtained the diploma 
of the Philosophical faculty, no woman had ventured to 
apply for admission to any University course. Since then, 
however, a certain number have graduated in the same 
faculty, and a still larger number have taken their degree in 
medicine or qualified in pharmacy ; while an eminent Greek 
lady doctor possessing a French degree has for some years 
past practised in Athens. 

Democratic though the Hellenes are both in principle and 
practice, there is, as will have been evident from the fore- 
going pages, little likelihood of the question 
Solidarity of female suffrage, either parliamentary or 
Family. municipal, being raised in Greece at least 
during the present generation. So far as 
any women's movement can be said to exist in the country 
it is, as above indicated, concerned chiefly with organising 
on profitable lines such industries as Greek women have from 
time immemorial occupied themselves with in their own 
homes, and with encouraging impecunious girls of the middle 
class to secure economic independence for themselves instead 
of hitherto burdening their poorly-paid fathers and brothers 
with their support. Here, too, the end in view is, however, 
in the main that of marriage by the acquisition of a dot which 
the circumstances of the girl's family have rendered them 
unable to provide ; and there is in this movement for the 
economic independence of women none of that tendency 



196 Greece of the Hellenes 

towards individualism which is breaking up family life in 
the West. Solidarity is still the keynote of Greek households, 
and the well-being of the family generally the first con- 
sideration. And when, as often happens, there are several 
daughters to be portioned in a family of moderate means, 
and the juniors have the prospect of waiting long before a 
dot can be forthcoming for them, it will be these younger 
girls of a family who are prepared to hasten matters by 
their own exertions. 

But though romance plays so small a part in Greek 
marriages, the privilege of divorce is rarely — save perhaps 
in the Capital and the larger towns of the Kingdom — ^made 
use of without serious cause, both social opinion and 
pecuniary consideration weighing strongly against it. And 
in all my long acquaintance with persons of this nation, 
some half-dozen cases only have come to my personal know- 
ledge. For though husbands and wives have, as a rule, 
seen very little of each other before marriage, marital dissen- 
sions are extremely rare, especially among the upper and 
middle classes, Greek men being not only good sons and 
brothers, but exemplary husbands, and the women in their 
turn are the most devoted of wives. There exist, too, as will 
appear elsewhere, considerable remains of patriarchal customs, 

even among the wealthy and educated 
Customs^ classes. One of these is that the sons, on 

marr3ring, often bring their wives to the 
paternal home. The mother, on the death of her husband, is 
not banished to " the dower house " to make room for the 
wife of her eldest son, but retains the place of honour in the 
household, and receives every mark of attention and respect, 
not only from her sons, but from their wives, who consider 
it no indignity to kiss her hand, or that of their father-in-law 
when receiving their morning greeting or evening benediction. 
For with the Greeks, as with all Oriental peoples, it is mother- 
hood rather than wifehood that entitles a woman to the 
respect of her husband's family and to social position. And 



I 



Home Life and Women's Work 197 

in these irreverent days it is very refreshing, on visiting a 
Greek family, to see the widowed mother at the head of the 
table, and remark the deference paid to her by all members 
of her household. 

It being so difficult a matter to find a husband for a portion- 
less Greek girl, a father will consequently make it his first 
duty to save a dot for his daughter or 
Portiwfs^ daughters, and brothers, in a father's place, 
are required by custom to see their sisters 
satisfactorily settled in life before taking wives themselves. 
Social opinion is, indeed, very strong on this point. Father- 
less youths of the humbler class will consequently be found 
putting by every penny they can save from their wages to 
that — from the Greek point of view — praiseworthy end, 
often remaining single themselves till middle age should 
they have not been able in the meantime to marry off their 
sisters. The legal marriageable age as fixed by the Orthodox 
Church is fifteen for a youth and twelve for a girl ; but nowa- 
days men do not usually marry before twenty-five nor girls 
before they have attained the age of eighteen. According 
to the unwritten social code daughters must also be married 
in order of seniority, and a pretty younger girl has accordingly 
no better chance of matrimony than her less prepossessing 
elder sisters. It is also a very common practice for country 
folk formally to betroth their offspring in infancy to the 
children of intimate friends ; but in such cases a youthful 
couple would be kept severely apart after the girl had 
completed her twelfth year. 

In consequence of the excess of men over women in the 
country, an old maid is almost as much of a rara avis among 
the Greeks as among their Turkish neighbours, for no girl, 
even if uncomely, need despair of matrimony if her relatives 
are able to furnish her with a dot. Marriage being thus 
looked forward to as a matter of course, the preparation of 
a girl's trousseau is often, especially among the artisan and 
peasant classes, begun by the careful mother while her 



198 Greece of the Hellenes 

daughter is still a child. The materials necessary are pur- 
chased by degrees, and the girl herself performs a great part 
of the task of converting them into wearing apparel and 

articles for domestic use. The daughter 
Trmissfau. ^ of a well-to-do peasant will often receive 

as her portion a sum ranging from £30 to 
£100, together with a plenishing comprising a stock of house- 
linen and home-made carpets, rugs and bedding, various 
articles of furniture, and two or three suits of clothing, includ- 
ing a gala costume for Sundays and holidays, which varies 
according to locality. Among the middle classes of the towns 
a dowry from £300 to £500 is usually given, and the trous- 
seaux are more or less European in fashion and materials. 
But whatever the age of the contracting parties, national 
etiquette ordains that they should take no ostensible part in 
the prehminaries of marriage, which are carried out by the 
respective parents, or next of kin, of the couple with the help 
of a professional matchmaker known as the proxenetis, or 
proxenetra. Such an agent is commissioned by the parents 
of a marriageable girl to find a suitable husband for her ; 
or it may be, to open negotiations with the parents of a 
young man whom they have themselves selected among the 
eligible partis of their acquaintance. 

Hard indeed would appear to be the lot of many of the 
peasant women who in some localities are to be seen working 

in the fields with the men, occasionally even 
Husband ^^ holding the plough, and performing all such 

farm duties which in the West are invariably 
performed by men ; and especially is this the case in districts 
where the male population has become infected with the 
emigration fever or habitually seeks occupation in other 
parts of the country. All the home interests will then be 
left in the hands of the wife who, with her baby slung in a 
bark cradle at her back and her pitcher poised on her head, 
fetches water from the well, attends to the cattle and performs 
all the multifarious and laborious duties thrust upon her by 



*l 



Home Life and Women's Work 199 

cruel circumstance. When the brunt of such hard physical 
toil falls upon a woman in a climate subject to great extremes 
of cold and heat she naturally becomes prematurely aged, 
and at thirty is already in appearance an old woman. There 
are also many women in better circumstances whose husbands' 
avocations take them from home for long periods, during which 
time the care and education of the children and the local 
interests of the family are left entirely in the hands of the 
wife, who generally proves herself equal to the occasion, and 
worthy of the trust reposed in her. 

Touching episodes are to be found in folk-song and folk-tale 
depicting the return of the husband after long years of absence, 
so changed that his faithful wife refused to receive him into 
her house until he had satisfied her, by his knowledge of some 
intimate personal mark, that he was indeed her husband — 

" ' Tell me the signs my body bears, and then I may believe thee I ' 
' Thou hast a mole upon thy chest, another in thine armpit ; 
There lies between thy two soft breasts, a spot of pearly whiteness ! ' " 

Many, too, are the songs which describe the wife's grief 
and lonehness during her husband's absence. The woman of 
Malakassi curses the foreign lands which " take the husbands 
when they're young, and send them back when aged " ; 
and most pathetic is the complaint of the Greek woman of 
Zagorie married to a Vlach husband, who, like the majority 
of his race, pursues a nomadic occupation — 

" Why didst thou, mana, marry me, and give me a Vlach husband ? — 
Twelve long years in Wallachia, and at his home three evenings I 
On Tuesday night, a bitter night, two hours before the dawning, 
My hand I did outstretch to him, but did not find my husband. 
Then to the stable-door I ran ; no horse fed at the manger ! 
I sped me to the chamber back ; I found not there his weapons ! 
I threw me on my lonely couch, to make my sad compla-n^ng ; 
' O pillow, lone and desolate ! O couch of mine, forsaken ! — 
Where is thy lord who yesternight did lay him down upon thee ? ' 
' Our lord has left us here behind, and gone upon a journey — 
Gone back to wild Wallachia, to famous Bucharest!.' " 

As girls of the peasant class can usually find plenty of 



200 Greece of the Hellenes 

occupation at home, they seldom go out to service, except 
when there happen to be more girls in a family than the father 
can afford to portion. For among this class 
Service*^ also there exists a general prejudice against 
allowing girls to leave the paternal roof 
until they are married, and a reproach is implied in the 
expression, " So-and-so has gone from home." There are, 
however, districts which form an exception to this rule, 
and, as already remarked, some of the islands are famous for 
their women cooks, who can always command good wages 
in the towns of the mainland. From the islands, too, come 
the good old nurses, who in former days brought with them 
their antiquated costumes and still bring their charming 
lullabies and folk-tales. The girls who enter domestic 
service save their wages carefully for a marriage dowry, and 
in some country districts still, as of old, wear the coins strung 
into necklaces and head ornaments, a fashion formerly common 
to all classes, when phlouria, or Venetian sequins, were in great 
demand for this purpose. 

The amount of a girl's dowry is thus easily ascertained by 
pallikars on the look-out for a " weel tochered " bride. In 
the maritime cities, however, the national costume has, 
unfortunately, been quite discarded by the women, together 
with the collar of coins. As there are no savings-banks, 
or other convenient methods of safely investing small sums, 
servants now usually allow their wages to accumulate 
in their masters' hands until they marry or return to their 
homes. A laundry-maid in the house of one of my friends 
had upwards of £100 to receive when she left after a long 
period of service. 

Greek servants, though on the whole honest and respectable, 
are at the same time hopelessly untidy and slatternly, and, as 
a rule, it is only in the houses of foreigners that a tidy maid 
is ever seen, though even there they often present themselves 
with stockingless feet, shoes down at heel, and unkempt hair. 
It is customary in the East to provide servants annually 



Home Life and Women's Work 201 

with a stipulated quantity of clothing in addition to their 
wages. Not a penny of the latter will they spend on dress ; 
and, consequently, the European lady, who has generally 
more regard for appearances than the native lady, finds 
it her best policy to offer small wages, and a large allowance 
of garments and shoes. Many girls, and especially orphans, 
are taken when still quite young into wealthy families, and 
adopted as ■yJrvxoTracSca, or " soul-children." Until the age 
of thirteen or fourteen they attend the public schools and 
assist in the lighter household duties. No wages are given, 
but the girls are clothed by their protectors and receive 
presents at the New Year and other festivals. On attaining 
the age of twenty-five or so, a trousseau and small dowry are 
provided, and a husband found for them, generally a small 
shopkeeper or artisan. 

The Greek women of the towns have few occupations 
outside their own homes. Their lives are passed for the 

most part in a dull routine of household duties, 
Townswomen. varied only by gossip at their doors in warm 

weather, occasional attendance at church, 
and a walk on the public promenade on some great holiday. 
Though their education is but slight, they are not without 
great good sense and intelligence. Among this class may, 
however, now often be observed a curious mixture of homeli- 
ness and pretension ; and instead of being content, as formerly, 
to furnish her reception-room with a Turkish divan and a 
few chairs, and to dress herself on Sundays and holidays in 
her substantial but old-fashioned wedding-dress, as her 
mother did, many a Greek matron stints her household and 
sacrifices the real comforts of life in order to furnish her 
salone with gaudy Austrian furniture, and to display an 
ill-assorted Parisian toilette to her admiring and, it may be, 
envious neighbours. To such an extent is this emulation 
sometimes carried in provincial towns, that I have heard of 
ladies sending out their servants on fete days to make note 
of the dresses and hats of their rivals, in order to be able to 



202 Greece of the Hellenes 

eclipse them when they themselves appeared on the 
promenade. 

But, notwithstanding these feminine weaknesses of petty 

vanity and love of display, Greek women, besides being, 

^, ^ , as before mentioned, faithful and affectionate 

Matron. Wives, are also the most tender — if not 

always the most judicious — mothers to be 
found in any country ; their devotion being well repaid 
by the dutiful and affectionate regard of their sons and 
daughters. Indeed, it would be difficult to find a people in 
whom family affection is more strongly developed, or with 
whom the ties of kindred are held more sacred. The young 
men who leave their native towns or villages to seek fortune 
in a distant town, if not previously married, generally return 
home to wed the wives chosen for them by their parents ; 
and, when they finally retire from commercial or professional 
pursuits, endeavour to spend the rest of their days in the 
midst of their kindred. When a youth is leaving for the 
first time the bosom of his family, it is, in some locahties, 
customary for his relatives and friends to accompany him 
some distance on the road. Before taking her final leave 
of her son, the mother laments his departure in song, to 
which the youth responds, bewailing the hard fate which 
drives him forth from his home. Some of these Songs of 
Exile are extempore effusions called forth by the circum- 
stances which induce or compel the youth to leave his home. 
Others, more conventional, describe the condition of the 
stranger in a foreign land, without mother, wife, or sister to 
minister to his wants, or cheer him in sickness and sorrow. 
Yet notwithstanding the semi-oriental position so long 
occupied by their sex, again and again during the War of 

Independence, as at other crises of their 
Heroines national history, have the women of modern 

Hellas of all ranks laid aside distaff and 
spindle and, side by side with father, brother or husband, 
taken part in the struggle for freedom. Among the many 



Home Life and Women's Work 203 

heroines who took part in the heroic endeavour to preserve 

their menaced hberty maintained by the Souhotes from 

1788 to 1803, was Helene, sister of the great Souhote leaders 

Kitsos and Notas Botsaris, one of whose exploits is thus 

commemorated in folk-song — 

" O'er many Prankish lands I've roved, and many Prankish islands. 
Seen Romeot ^ and Turkish girls, Frank wives, and Prankish maidens, 
But nowhere have I woman met so wise and so heroic 
As is that maid of Souli who the sister is of Notas. 
Her pistols and her sword she dons, takes up her long tophdiki ;^ 
Away she hastens, all alone, to seek her brother Notas. 
Three Turks there meet her on the road, and fain would seize upon 

her : 
' Thine arms, O woman, throw them down, thy life then mayst thou 

save it ! ' 
' What sayst thou, O wretched Turk ? What sayest, vile Albanian ? — 
I an unmarried maiden am, I'm Botsaris' Helene ! ' 
Her curved sword she from scabbard draws, all three Turks low 

then lays she." 

The women of Mane also specially distinguished themselves 
by their Spartan-hke heroism. On the approach of the 
Turkish troops, the women and girls left their villages and, 
lying in ambush in the mountain passes, kept up a constant 
guerilla warfare against the invaders of their homes. One 
of these heroines, Helene, the niece of a magnate of 
Kytherias, was, in after years, visited by the French traveller, 
M. Pouqueville, in the fortified tower of that name where she 
lived surrounded by a number of the women whom she had 
formerly led to battle. Another Greek leader, Captain 
Christos, had among his forces a company of twenty amazons 
under the leadership of his own sister, who was wounded in 
one of their engagements with the enemy. And such was 
the respect with which these women were regarded by their 
compatriots, that a German musician was shot dead by their 
Captain for venturing to address disrespectful remarks to 
one of them. 

1 i.e. Greek. The terms Romeot and Romaika were until recently 
commonly used instead of Hellene and Hellenic to designate the Greek 
race and language respectively. 

^ Gun. 



204 Greece of the Hellenes 

Two other renowned heroines of these stirring times were 
Constance Zacharias and Modena Mavroyennos. The former, 
on the outbreak of the insurrection, planted the standard 
of the Cross on her dweUing and called upon all patriotic 
women to join her. Numbers responded to her appeal ; 
and after receiving the benediction of the Bishop of Helos, 
she led her little troop against the Turks, who retired before 
the amazons. Proceeding to Londaro, the amazons tore down 
the crescents from the mosques and set fire to the house of the 
Turkish voivode, who fell by the sword of their leader. The 
father of Modena had been strangled by order of the Pasha of 
Euboea, and after his death she took refuge in Mykone. But 
when the call to arms roused the patriotism of the Pelo- ■ 
ponnesians, Modena secretly incited her friends both in I 
Euboea and Myk6n6 to revolt ; and such was the effect of 
her eloquence on the Mykonians that they equipped and 
despatched four war vessels as their contribution to the 
Hellenic fleet. It was also Modena who, when the Algerian 
ships disembarked troops on the shores of Myk6n6, hastily 
collecting a band of patriots, drove them on board again 
with the loss of their leader. 

During the long siege of Mesolonghi, too, the women and 

girls aided the defenders by bringing materials of every 

description to stop the breaches made by 

Mesolonghi! ^^^ Turkish artillery, directed — shameful 
to say — by European officers. In the 
course of the siege the leading women of the beleaguered 
town drew up and signed a petition which they addressed 
to the philhellenic ladies of Europe, praying them to use 
their influence with their respective governments to prevent 
this partisanship of the strong against the weak and des- 
cribing in touching terms the sufferings of the brave 
defenders. " Most of us," they wrote, " have seen mothers 
d5dng in the arms of their daughters, daughters expiring 
in the sight of their wounded fathers, children seeking nourish- 
ment from the breasts of their dead mothers ; nakedness. 



Home Life and Women's Work 205 

famine, cold and death are the least of the evils witnessed 
by our tear-dimmed eyes. Few are there among us who have 
not lost loved relatives ; many are left destitute orphans. 
But, friends of Hellas, less profoundly have these evils touched 
our hearts than has the inhumanity manifested towards a 
nation struggling for freedom by those who boast of being 
born in the bosom of civilised Europe." This touching appeal 
was, hqjjj^er, disregarded by " civilised Europe." After a 
siege of eleven months maintained by a garrison of less than 
6,000 against an army of 100,000, a sortie was attempted. 
Two companies succeeded in forcing the Ottoman lines ; 
but the third, after losing three-fourths of its number, was, 
with the women and children, driven back into the town 
which they still for two days bravely defended. Finally, 
rather than fall into the hands of the enemy, the survivors 
set fire to the powder and all heroically perished together. 

Nor was the outbreak on Pelion in 1878, which preceded 
the liberation from Ottoman rule of Thessaly, without its 

heroines. The daughters and sisters of the 
of ^Pelion patriots braved the whizzing rifle bullets and 

the risk of capture in order to carry food 
and water to their male relatives holding the entrenchments 
on the hill above the town of Volo, which is dotted with 
Greek villages. The name of Marighitza, a girl belonging 
to the village of Makrinitza, was more especially mentioned 
for intrepidity ; and when the insurrection was over she was 
sent for to Athens to be presented to the King and Queen 
and feted by the inhabitants. A far more sensational story 
connected with this rising is, however, that of a woman 
named Peristera — " The Pigeon," who was, it appears, an 
actual combatant in the struggle, during which her brother 
met his death. On the cessation of hostilities this woman, 
disguising her sex, joined a band of brigands, of whom she 
became the leader under the name of Vanghelli, to which her 
followers added the soubriquet of Spand, or " Beardless." 
After some years, the brigand bands of Olympus were broken 



206 Greece of the Hellenes 

up by Mehmet Ali Pasha, and Peristera, leaving the mountains, 
repaired to the British Vice-Consulate at Larissa and there 
gave in her submission. The Ottoman authorities, as usual 
in such cases, granted a pardon to the penitent brigand who, 
being apparently homeless and friendless, was received 
into the service of the Archbishop of Kodjani. A photograph 
in my possession represents her as a rather short and sturdy 
woman, plain of feature, dressed in the usual brigand costume 
of dirty white fustanella and shirt, braided vest and jacket, 
and wearing suspended round her neck by a silver chain the 
insignia of chieftainship — a large silver disk bearing the 
St. George and Dragon in low relief. 

Not alone during national crises, however, have Greek 
women exchanged distaff and spindle for sword and tophdiki. 
For occasionally to them — as to their Bulgarian sisters — the 
charms of a life in the greenwood has proved as irresistible 
as they were to Maid Marian of Sherwood Forest, and various 
folk-songs relate how — 

" For twelve long years had Haidee lived an Armatole and Klephte, 
And no one had her secret learned among her ten companions," 

until one Easter Sunday when, engaged in athletic exercises 
with the other pallikars, her sex was accidentally disclosed. 

In Greece women exercise little, if any, influence in politics, 
though even here there have been instances of ladies who, 

towards the end of the last century, con- 
'ifadies^^**^ tributed in no small degree to the success of 

at least two eminent politicians. Those 
of the wealthy class, on the other hand, nowadays devote 
a considerable part of their leisure to such philanthropic 
work as the direction of the hospitals, orphanages and other 
charitable institutions which, in the East, supply the place 
of parish relief and the workhouse, and thus prevent the 
formation of a pauper class in the population. One of these 
excellent institutions, founded so long ago as 1855, and called 
the Amalieion in honour of the Queen of Greece who was its 
first patroness, is directed by a committee of which four members 



Home Life and Women's Work 207 

are women. Though nominally an orphanage for girls, the 
daughters of necessitous parents are also received, the majority 
of the inmates, about 140 in number, being natives of Athens 
and the vicinity. The girls are taught, in addition to plain 
sewing in all its branches, embroidery, lace-making, straw- 
plaiting ; they also spin and weave the materials for their own 
clothing, and perform at the same time all the domestic work 
of the establishment. The girls may remain in the orphanage 
up to the age of twenty-three or thereabouts ; but as they 
are much sought after as ladies' maids or seamstresses in 
private families, the directresses have little difficulty in 
placing them out in the world to earn their own living. They 
also soon find husbands, as the endowments of the institution 
enable it to provide dowries of from ;^40 to £80, when the 
suitor is approved of. The " Home for Incurables " at 
Athens is also managed by a committee of twenty ladies, 
and both the Children's Hospital and the large general 
hospital known as the Evangelismos are directed by women. 

During the disastrous war of 1897, a band of patriotic ladies, 
headed by Madame Parren, and styling themselves the 
" The Union " Union of Hellenic Women," set on foot 
of Hellenic an organisation for social work and national 
Women." service. The first work of the Union was the 
support, with funds provided by the late King, of the 
necessitous widows and orphans of those who had fallen 
in the war, the movement subsequently developing into an 
important institution comprising various sections. Among 
these are a training school for eighty female teachers, an in- 
dustrial school for over 200 girls, and an organisation for the 
support of superannuated domestic servants. Others provide 
medical advice and nursing for the sick poor in their own 
homes, take measures for the prevention of tuberculosis, and 
carry out other important sanitary work. Lectures are also 
delivered on such subjects as nursing and general hygiene. 
Two devoted ladies direct an establishment for the employ- 
ment of 400 women and girl immigrants from the provinces. 



208 Greece of the Hellenes 

In this " Workshop for Destitute Women " — ^usually termed 
more briefly the " Poor Girls " — ^the younger children receive 
an elementary education at the same time as technical 
instruction ; the elder girls and the women are engaged in 
the production of various fabrics, including silk stuffs, carpets 
and curtains, lace and embroidery ; while those past such work 
perform the simpler tasks of combing, carding, and spinning 
the wool and flax used by the more able-bodied. 

The " Royal Hellenic School of Needlework " at Athens, 
though originally founded by Lady Egerton to supply weaving 

work to the female refugees from Thessaly, 
^^h ^?^^} rnust also not be omitted from the list of insti- 
Needlework. tutions for the benefit of women. On the 

departure of this lady from Athens the 
presidency of the School was accepted by Princess Nicholas, 
and within a few years of its foundation it had developed 
into an important and permanent establishment, housed 
in a building specially constructed with funds provided 
by the King on land generously given for the purpose by a 
French lady well known for her ardent philhellenism. This 
institution has now five provincial branches and employs some 
500 women and girls in reproducing the various kinds of lace 
and embroidery for which South-eastern Europe has always 
been renowned, as well as the Italian varieties introduced 
centuries ago into those regions by the Venetians. Some of 
the designs emanating from the central School at Athens, 
which directs the various branches, have been copies from 
objects unearthed at Mykenae, Knossos and elsewhere; 
others are Byzantine or mediaeval Italian. The branches 
have each a local specialty, fine white linen work being pro- 
duced at Corinth, at Koropi the heavy embroidery similar 
to that used by the Albanian settlers for bordering their 
native costumes, while Aigina excels in the making of a 
point de Milan lace. The work of the School generally is 
disposed of at its dep&t in Athens, as also by Liberty & Co. 
in London, and at an agency in Cairo. 



CHAPTER XVI 

Family Ceremonies 

/ Birth and Baptismal Observances 

As already indicated in previous chapters, survivals of pagan 
beliefs still hold sway over the minds of the Greek populace, 

and are connected with every detail of 
Survfvals. domestic hfe. These remnants of an ancient 

civihsation Unger especially, together with a 
variety of other old-world customs, round the important 
family events of birth, marriage and death — the " Three 
Evils of Destiny " elsewhere referred to, ^ varying somewhat 
according to locahty and degree of contact with other national- 
ities, but remaining the same in their general features. In 
northern Greece the arrival of the little stranger is awaited 
in silence by the mamme, or midwife, and a group of elderly 
matrons whose presence and prayers keep away " all things 
harmful." The baby gains its first experience of the miseries 
of life by being pickled in salt and water ; after which it is 
enveloped in innumerable garments of mysterious form and 
fashion. The glad news has meantime circulated through the 
household, who flock into the room to offer their felicitations. 
These are generally couched in the conventional phrases, 

"May it live to you," and "Long life to 
Nereids. ^* ' " — ^^^ latter salutation being also addressed 

to the unconscious infant. Mother and child 
must now, at least until its baptism, be carefully watched 
over, and never left unattended, as the Nereids of the 
fountains and springs are sure to be hovering over a dwelling 
in which a birth has recently taken place, on the look-out 
for an opportunity of exchanging one of their own fractious 
1 See p. 182. 

209 
14— (2385) 



210 Greece of the Hellenes 

offspring for a mortal babe. For the manners and customs 
of these dreaded beings strongly resemble those of our northern 
fairies, thus described by Ben Jon son — 

" When larks 'gin spring, 

Away we fling. 
And babes new-born steal as we go ; 

An elf in bed 

We leave instead, 
And wind out laughing, Ho, Ho, Ho ! " ^ 

In Rhodes, no stranger save the mamme is on any account 
allowed to enter the house until the baby has been blessed by 
the priest ; and for forty days after its birth the house door 
is kept shut between sunset and sunrise, for fear of the 
Nereids. These mystic folk, it would appear, imitate some of 
the ceremonials of mortals. A friend of mine once asked 
a countrywoman from whom she was purchasing some 
embroideries why such work was so often soiled or stained ; 
and the woman replied quite seriously that it was the doing 
of the Nereids, who often borrowed these articles for their 
christenings and weddings. 

The mother rises on the third day, and walks round her bed 
in a stream of water which the mamme pours before her from 
a jar. The meaning of this rite is not very clear ; but, taken 
in connection with the other observances and also with the 
similar custom observed on the wedding day, it would appear 
to be either a libation to the earth, or a tribute to the water 
deities. On the fifth day the Fates must be 

of™he Fate" propitiated in order to induce them to confer 
upon the infant favours which will influence 
its future career. In the case of a boy, coins of gold and 
silver, a sword, and a cake of bread are placed in the cradle 
to remind the " Dealers out of Destinies " that fortune, 
valour, and abundance are desired for him ; a distaff or 

^ Compare Halliwell, Fairy Mythology, p. 169. See also Shakes- 
peare, Henry IV, Part I, Act 1, x] ; and Brand's Popular Antiquities, 
Vol. II, p. 484. 



Family Ceremonies 211 

spindle being substituted for the sword in the case of a girl, 
intimating the value placed on feminine industry. 

The christening generally takes place before the infant is 
a week old, and is made the occasion of much display. For 

it is remarkable that the more secluded the 
Godmothe«^ domestic life of a people, the greater is the 

publicity given to ceremonies connected 
with family events. The groomsman and chief bridesmaid 
who have officiated at the wedding of the parents become 
sponsors for the children under the names of nono and nond 
and syntekhnoi to the father and mother. For, among 
members of the Orthodox Greek Church, the terms " God- 
father " and " Godmother " are by no means the empty 
titles into which they have, generally speaking, degenerated 
with us. The responsibilities undertaken by baptismal 
sponsors are religiously fulfilled, and they are treated by their 
godchildren with an affectionate respect little less than that 
accorded to their parents according to the flesh. The children 
of both families are considered brothers and sisters, and a 
relationship is presumed which forms as complete a bar to 
intermarriage as the closest consanguinity. A man could 
not, for instance, wed a widow if he had stood sponsor for her 
children at the font, and a Greek would as soon think of 
marrying his own sister as the daughter of his nono. In some 
of the islands it has indeed become difficult for the young 
people of the better class to find spouses, so closely are they 
already connected by intermarriages and baptisms. 

The expenses of the christening are borne by the nono, who 
pays the priest's fees, buys the baptismal robe, and supplies 

the bonbons, liqueurs, and other customary 
the^Baby^ refreshments. The Greek Church prides 

itself, and probably with reason, on keeping 
up primitive forms more strictly than the Roman Catholic, 
or any other. Baptism is therefore performed, not by a 
conventional sprinkling, but by trine immersion. The baby 
is carried to church by the mamme, and followed by a long 



212 Greece of the Hellenes 

irregular procession composed or sponsors, relatives and 
invited guests. The nono takes the infant from the nurse's 
arms and holds it while making the customary responses to 
the preliminary prayers read by the pappas. He then delivers 
the infant to the priest, who makes with its body the sign of 
the cross. While the preparations for its immersion are being 
made the baby is laid before an eikon of Christ or the Virgin, 
according to its sex, and is then undressed and handed to 
the priest who dips it three times in the font, to the water of 
which has been added a few drops of " holy oil." Three tiny 
locks of hair, if these can be found, are then cut from the 
infant's head and thrown into the font in the name of the 
Trinity. This dedication of hair was no doubt originally a 
sacrifice to the elementary spirits, the water from the font 
being emptied into a pit or well under the floor of the church. ^ 

Then follows the " confirmation " of the infant, which 

consists in anointing the head and certain parts of the body 

with consecrated oil. It is then dressed, and 

Confirmation 3-fter being carried three times round the font 
by the godmother, while prayers are intoned, 
is carried to the " Holy Gates," or Sanctuary, where it 
receives the Communion in both kinds, administered, as 
customary in the Eastern Church, in a spoon. The party 
then return to the house to congratulate the mother and par- 
take of refreshments. Trays of comfits of various kinds, 
either white or silvered, are handed round and taken in hand- 
fuls ; and, on leaving, a tiny gilt cross attached to a white 
rosette is pinned on the breast of each guest as a souvenir 
of the occasion. 

II Marriage Customs 
The prohibited degrees of relationship, both natural and 
conventional, are not only more numerous but also more 

This supposition, questioned when advanced some years ago, 
has been more than confirmed by Mr. Paton in his paper on The Holy 
Names of the Eleusinian Mysteries, pubhshed in the Proceedings of the 
International Folk-lore Congress of 1891. 



Family Ceremonies 213 

rigorously observed in the Greek than in the Latin Church, 
no powers of granting special dispensations being vested in 
the Patriarchal Office, as in the Papal. Occa- 
Prohibited sionally one has heard of instances of marriage 
egrees. between second cousins being celebrated by 
the inferior clergy under the influence of bribery. Such unions 
have, however, invariably been annulled as illegal, and the 
unfortunate parties whose mutual attachment has led them 
thus to violate the canonical law were, under pain of ex- 
communication, commanded by the Ecclesiastical Court to 
renounce for ever each other's society. 

Among the middle and upper classes of Greeks it is no 
longer customary for weddings to be solemnised in church, 
the religious as well as the secular part of the ceremony being 
performed at the home of the bride, where a substitute for the 
altar is arranged in the principal reception room. These 
marriage ceremonies usually take place either in the afternoon 
or at a somewhat late hour in the evening, when the cere- 
monies of betrothal and marriage, which were formerly, 
and still are among the people, celebrated on separate occasions 
now form part of the same ceremony. These innovations, 
which the clergy — however they may, and do, deplore them — 
seem powerless to resist, deprive the marriage ceremonial 
of all solemnity, as the company at such functions behave as 
a rule with an absolute lack of reverence, often talking and 
joking even while the prayers incidental to the service are 
being intoned. But though so many of the old customs 
formerly observed in connection with weddings have thus 
been abandoned in the towns, many curious and interesting 
usages still survive among the village and island folk. These 
ancient folk-customs vary somewhat in their minor details 
according to locality, but in their leading features they are 
everywhere identical, there being more or less similar cere- 
monies of betrothal, with songs for each successive stage 
of the week's festivities, whether they take place in the 
Peloponnesos, in central or northern Greece, or in the Islands. 



214 Greece of the Hellenes 

The amount of the bride's dowry agreed upon between 

the parents of the contracting parties, the girl's mother 

and the proxenites, according to ancient 

Betrothal. custom, eat cinnamon together, and the 
formal betrothal takes place. The anavon- 
istikds, accompanied by his relatives, proceeds to the home 
of his future wife where the party are received with great 
formality, the arravonistike standing in a posture of affected 
modesty and humility, with hands crossed on her breast 
and downcast eyes, to receive their felicitations, a custom 
which has given rise to the common Greek expression, 
" Affected as a bride." When all the customary compliments 
have been exchanged, the inevitable glyko ^ is handed round, 
followed by coffee and cigarettes, and the party take their 
leave. The maiden accompanies them to the head of the 
staircase, and there is presented by each in turn with gold 
coins and sprays of sweet basil — a herb which plays a great 
part in Oriental symbolisms — ^kissing the hand of each in 
acknowledgment of their gifts and good wishes. The 
interval between the first arravon and the wedding varies, 
but seldom extends over many months, and one seldom hears 
of an engagement being broken off in the meantime. 

Some of the most interesting customs connected with the 

marriage ceremony are to be found in central and northern 

Greece where a whole week is dedicated 

Weddii^s ^^ ^^® preliminary nuptial observances and 
festivities. On the Sunday preceding a 
wedding a copy of the marriage contract is formally delivered 
at the house of the bridegroom, who sends in return to the 
bride a present of bonbons, henna, rouge, soap, etc., and to her 
parents a jar of wine. On Monday, the girl friends of the 
bride arrive to help her to sift and carry to the mill the grain 
of which the wedding cakes are to be made. On the Wednes- 
day morning they bring home the flour, and assist in the mak- 
ing of the cakes. The long wooden kneading-trough is 

1 See pp. 151, 156. 



Family Ceremonies 215 

brought in and filled ; a boy armed with a sword seats himself 
on one end, while on the other is perched a tiny maiden, 
who, as she pretends to knead the dough, hides in it the wedding 
ring and some coins. The boy with his weapon signifies that 
the husband is the guardian of the home, and the kneading 
girl that domestic duties are woman's sphere. Bright and 
joyful must the lives of these little ones have been, and 
unclouded by any family bereavement. The cake-making 
is then proceeded with in earnest by experienced hands 
amid song and laughter — for these occasions are red-letter 
days in the monotonous lives of the Greek women of the 
interior — and then left till the morrow to " rise." In the 
morning the kneaders reassemble and the dough is divided 
into portions, each woman and girl searching in her lump for 
the ring and coins, the former being subsequently redeemed 
by the bridegroom with a present to its lucky finder. The 

dough is then returned to the trough, and 

^w *HH- *^^ made into a variety of cakes — among them a 

Cakes. large one called the propkasto — ^which are 

forthwith baked. In the afternoon the bride- 
groom arrives with his friends, the propkasto is placed over a 
bowl of water, and round it the assembled youths and maidens 
dance three times, singing meanwhile the " Song of the 
Wedding Cake." The propkasto is forthwith broken into 
small pieces which, together with figs and other fruits, are 
showered over the heads of the young couple ; and while the 
children are scrambling on the floor for these a quilt is thrown 
over them as a further emblem of fruitfulness and plenty. 
On Friday the bride and bridegroom exchange presents. 
The bearers of the bridegroom's gifts set out in procession, 
preceded by music ; and after being warmly welcomed and 
refreshed with wine and wedding-cakes, and in turn entrusted 
with the bride's presents to her betrothed, carefully enveloped 
in embroidered hoktchas, as bundle-wraps are termed, and 
tied up with strands of the flat tinsel thread termed hlira, 
which figures largely in such ceremonies. 



216 Greece of the Hellenes 

If the bridegroom's home is in the same neighbourhood as 
that of the bride, parties of the near relatives of the couple 
go from house to house, bearing invitations to all the guests 
who are to take part in the festivities of that evening and the 
following day, a ceremony also extended to the bride and 
bridegroom, each of whom invites the other. The koumbdros 
and koumhdra — groomsman and chief bridesmaid — are the last 
called upon, and accompanied by music, are escorted to the 
house of rejoicing. Singing, dancing and feasting occupy the 
time until the evening, when the girls carry off the bride to 
perform part of her toilette for the morrow. After washing, 
perfuming, and perhaps dyeing her hair with 
the^Brid^. henna, they, amid jokes and laughter, plait 
it in innumerable braids, one after another 
meanwhile bursting into a song suited to the occasion and 
of a highly complimentary character. ^ The bridegroom has, 
in the meantime, been conducted by his companions to another 
room where the local barber proceeds to shave him carefully, 
considerable time, as is usual in the East, being devoted to the 
operation, this ceremony also being enlivened with music 
and complimentary songs. 

As there are " lucky " and " unlucky " days for every 
incident of domestic life, Sunday is considered the most 
auspicious for the termination of a country wedding. On the 
morning of this day, accordingly, friends and relatives assemble 
at the home of the bridegroom, embrace and congratulate him 
on the auspicious event, and escort him to the home of the 
bride. As they leave the house, his mother, in accordance 
with ancient custom, pours a libation of water before him at 
the gate, and lays across his path a girdle over which he steps. 
If the parties are well-to-do, and the distance is long, he may 
ride to the ceremony ; but most frequently the procession 
takes its way on foot, with music and song, calling in turn 
for the koumbdros and koumhdra. On the arrival of the 

* A selection of these nuptial songs is included in my translations 
of Greek Folkpoesy, Vol. I. 




SShah 



THE MAMME 



Constantinople 



Family Ceremonies 217 

bridegroom and his party the ceremony commences with the 
exchange of the documents containing the marriage contracts, 
which are presented by the priest to the respective parents 

of the bride and bridegroom. The amount 
Betrothal ^^ *^® dowry is then paid in cash to the 

bridegroom, some of whose friends convey it 
to his residence. The second arravon or betrothal, a ceremony 
similar to that observed by the ancient Greeks, now takes 
place. The bride's father, or her nearest male relative, 
offers to the corresponding relative of the bridegroom some 
sprigs of sweet basil on a plate with the words, thrice repeated : 
" Accept the betrothal of my daughter to your son," the same 
ceremony being repeated by the other party. A male relative 
of the bride then presents on her part to her future spouse a 
glass of wine, a kouloura, or ring-shaped cake, and a spoon. 
After drinking the wine, the bridegroom drops some coins 
into the glass for the bride, eats half the cake, and gives the 
remainder, with the spoon, into the keeping of the koumbdros. ^ 
Another envoy from the bride now comes up to gird the 
bridegroom, and while doing this essays to lift him off his feet, 
the happy man resisting to the best of his ability. These pre- 
liminaries are then concluded by the " best man " in somewhat 
prosaic fashion, for it is now his duty and privilege to put on 
the bride's feet the shoes provided by the bridegroom. 

Bedizened in all her bridal finery, her rouged and spangled 
cheeks partly concealed by a gauze veil, over which hangs 

a long tinsel tassel, the maiden walks forth 
Ceremonyf^ into the street, stepping through a libation 

of water poured by her mother on the thresh- 
old. The musicians strike up a wedding march, and hymeneal 
songs are chanted as the procession passes slowly to the 
church. At the door her future mother-in-law accosts her 
with the question : " Bride, hast thou the shoes ? " and this 

^ This form of marriage resembles the Latin Confarreatio , so named 
from the central rite in which the man and woman ate together a 
circular cake called the pants farreus. 



218 Greece of the Hellenes 

being satisfactorily answered, the procession enters the sacred 
edifice. Carrjdng tapers decorated with flowers and knots of 
white ribbon, the bridal pair advance to the Holy Table, the 
bride standing on the bridegroom's left. The third arravon 
is now performed by the priest who, after reading part of the 
ritual, makes the sign of the cross with the rings three times 
over the heads of the couple, and then places them on their 
respective hands, saying, " Give thy troth, servant of God 
(adding the man's name), to the servant of God (adding the 
woman's name), in the name of the Father, the Son, and the 
Holy Ghost." The priest then takes the wedding " crowns " — 
constructions of white artificial flowers connected by lengths 
of white satin ribbon — and places them on the heads of the 
couple with the words, " Crown thyself, servant of God," etc., 
as above. The groomsman, standing behind the pair, inter- 
changes the wreaths several times, the priest repeating these 
words meanwhile. All three then partake of consecrated 
wine from a cup, which is forthwith broken, and the pair, 
holding each other's hands, are led three times round the 
Holy Table, the best man following with his hands on the 
" crowns." The remainder of the liturgy chanted — ^with 
nasal intonation and many repetitions of Kyrie eleison — ^the 
priest removes the wreath of the bridegroom and then that 
of the bride, pronouncing meanwhile, in scriptural language, 
a blessing on their union. 

The koumbdros having set the example of kissing both 
bride and bridegroom, the assembled friends crowd round to 
offer also their felicitations. On the return of the party to the 
bride's home, her mother places a loaf on the heads of the 
couple while comfits are showered over them by the rest of the 
company. The wedding feast follows, and is 
Farewell ^ prolonged until the hour of the bride's depar- 
ture. After drinking healths, the glasses are 
thrown away over the shoulder, it being considered a bad 
omen if they are not broken. Then comes the farewell to 
the dear paternal home, which is expressed in many simple 



Family Ceremonies 219 

but touching folk-songs, chanted while the bride is weeping 
in her mother's arms. As the bride crosses the threshold, 
a loaf is divided, one half of which she takes to her new home. 
The guests now escort the young couple to the village green 
with hymeneal songs, and after there dancing the syrto, 
conduct the happy pair, with more music and singing, to the 
paternal home of the bridegroom. 

On the following morning, friends again assemble before the 

house to greet the young couple with songs and music. The 

koumbdros arrives to breakfast, bringing with 

the°^Nereidf. ^™ ^^® ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^^® spoon confided to 
his care on the preceding day, ^ the former 
being eaten and the latter used by the bride at this meal. 
On its conclusion she proceeds, accompanied by her women 
and girl friends, to the well from which her husband's family 
draw their supply of water, in order to perform the ceremony 
observed from time immemorial of propitiating the " Nereids 
of the Spring " with the gift of a coin dropped into it from her 
lips. She then draws a pail of water, and fills with it one of 
those gracefully shaped red earthen jars called by the modern 
Greeks stamni, which she carries home poised on her shoulder. 
On entering the house, the bride pours a little of the water 
over the hands of her husband, and presents him with a towel 
on which to dry them, receiving in return a little gift. Feasting 
and dancing occupy the rest of the day, after which the young 
wife settles down quietly in her new home, relieving her 
mother-in-law of many household duties. On the following 
Friday, however, the bride, accompanied by her husband, 
returns to spend twenty-four hours under the parental roof 
and pays her mother another visit on the subsequent Wednes- 
day, when she takes with her a bottle of the native spirit called 
mastika, bringing back with her an equal quantity from the 

^ Thi3 custom of the best man taking the spoon with him may have 
some connection with an episode which is of frequent occurrence in 
Greek folk-tale, as, for instance, in the Rev. Mr. Geldart's translation 
of the Greek Cinderella story in Folk-lore of Modern Greece, p. 30. 



220 Greece of the Hellenes 

family store, the nuptial observances being finally terminated 
three days afterwards by a feast offered by the bride's father 
to all the relatives of the young couple. 

Ill Funeral Ceremonies 

Among the Greeks, as with the Keltic Races, funerals are 

attended with rites of symbolic import, which are most 

carefully observed in their minutest detail. 
Archaic Death t-v • i j • , • -j.! 

Custom. ■'•^^ ceremonies observed m connection with 

death and burial are also almost everywhere 
identical, and include many archaic customs and time- 
honoured traditions in association with the rites of the 
Eastern Church. 

When the end of a sick person is believed to be approaching, 
the priest is summoned to administer to him the last sacra- 
ments. If the death struggle appears prolonged, the friends 
of the moribund conclude that some person or persons must 
be at enmity with him, and use their best endeavours to bring 
to his bedside anyone whom he may have wronged. Should 
such an injured person be dead, a small portion of his shroud 
will, if possible, be obtained. This is laid on a pan of charcoal 
embers, and the dying man fumigated with the smoke arising 
therefrom, when the hostility of its owner is believed to 
cease, and the soul be able to depart in peace. The family 
then gather round to take their last farewell and cheer the 
fleeting moments of the departing spirit. After the first 
burst of natural grief- is exhausted, the body is left to the 
ministrations of the " washers of the dead," and, the cus- 
tomary ablutions performed, it is anointed with oil and wine, 
and sprinkled with earth. A clean mattress and bed-linen 
are then spread on a long table, and on this the deceased is 
laid, dressed in his or her best raiment, with the feet pointing 
towards the doorway and the hands crossed on the breast, 
on which a cup is also placed. The bier is decked with fresh 
flowers and green branches, and three large wax tapers. 



Family Ceremonies 221 

ranged at the foot, are kept burning continually. A large 
stone is also brought into the room and left there for three 
days, a custom which appears to commemorate the death and 
resurrection of Christ. 

Greek women have in all times played a conspicuous part 
in funeral observances, and from the days of Antigone the 

fulfilment of the rites of sepulture has been 
Dirges observed by them as one of their most 

sacred duties. Homer describes how Andro- 
mache chanted a dirge to her dead husband and her son 
Astyanax, how the mother and sister-in-law took up the lament, 
the burden of which was repeated by a chorus of other women ; 
and such scenes as this may still at the present day be wit- 
nessed in the cottage of the humblest peasant. The female 
relatives of the deceased, with dishevelled hair and disordered 
dress, now come in to perform the office of watchers. Seated 
on the floor around the bier, they take it in turn to chant 
dirges — myriologia — for the dead, lamenting his loss, extolling 
his virtues, and in some cases, describing the manner of his 
death, if accidental or untimely. These myriologia are 
essentially pagan in sentiment. They contain no assurance 
that the dead are in a state of bliss, no hope of a happy 
reunion in Paradise. A dying son can comfort his mother 
only by directing her to a hill on which grow " herbs of 
forgetfulness." The fond brother would build for his sister 
a mausoleum in which she could sit at ease, look forth on the 
green earth, and hear the birds singing. And the young 
widow complains that her husband has abandoned her, and 
wedded instead " the black earth." But, as a rule, the lost 
ones are mourned as carried off by the vindictive and remorse- 
less Charon from home and friends and all the joys and 

pursuits of the upper world to his dreary 
of Charon, realm of Hades. This lower world is generally 

pictured as a tent, green or red outside, but 
black within, where are held dismal banquets on the bodies of 
the dead. Charon goes out hunting on his black steed, 



222 Greece of the Hellenes 

and returns laden with human spoil of both sexes and all 
ages — 

" The young men he before him drives, and drags the old behind him. 
While ranged upon his saddle sit with him the young and comely." 

Charon is also, in some of these dirges, credited with the 
possession of a mother, as in the following from Nisyros, 
composed for a girl who had died in the flower of her youth — 

" ' I heard the tombstones crying out, the black Earth, too, was 

trembling ; 

And Charon's mother, too, I heard, and she her son was scolding : 

' My son, you're always bringing them, to me you ever bring them ; 

But this young maid you now have brought weeps still, and is not 

docile. 
I give her apples, them she spurns, and throws away my roses ; 
Sweet basil, too, I bring to her, and underfoot she treads it.' 
And thus to her the maid replies, with lips by grief embittered, 
' I do not want your basil sweet, nor do I want your balsams. 
My father dear alone I want, I want my own sweet mother ! ' " 

Sometimes, however, the " Black Earth " itself is per- 
sonalised as Charon's mother, and this despotic Lord of the 
Underworld is also in some of these threnodies described as 
having a son, as in these lines from a Thessalian dirge — 

" The Sun has risen clouded o'er, darkened is he and sullen ; 
Say, is he angry with the Stars, or with the Moon in heaven ? 
Or angry with the Morning Star that's near the seven Pleiads ? 
He is not angry with the Stars, nor with the Moon in heaven ; 
Nor angry with the Star of Morn that's near the seven Pleiads, 
But Charon's making merry now, he's keeping his son's wedding ; 
And youths he slays instead of lambs, and brides for goats he 

slaughters ; 
And he has ta'n the Widow's Son, no other Son is left her," etc. ^ 

Though often crudely expressed in the mixed and ill- 
pronounced dialects of the various localities to which they 
belong, these death ballads are by no means devoid of finely 
imaginative and poetic ideas. Many are no doubt of 

^ A number of these Dirges are included among the pieces translated 
in my Greek Folkpoesy, Vol. I, pp. 81-100. 



Family Ceremonies 223 

considerable antiquity, and have been transmitted as heirlooms 
from mother to daughter through countless generations. 
Every woman knows by heart a considerable number, suited 
to all circumstances ; and if these are found insufficient to 
express the overwrought feelings of a bereaved mother, wife, 
or sister, her grief will find vent in an improvised myriologos, 
less measured and rhythmical, perhaps, than the conven- 
tional dirge, but equally marked by touching pathos and 
poetic imagery. 

The interment usually takes place within twenty-four 
hours after death. The invited guests assemble at the house 

of mourning, bringing with them flowers to 
Ceremony ^^^ °^ ^^® occupant of the unclosed coffin. 

In Northern Greece the coin to pay his passage 
across the Styx — ^the classic ndvlon for Charon — is placed 
between the lips of the corpse ; in other localities, and in some 
of the iEgean islands, in the hand. In Rhodes it is customary 
to place on the mouth of the dead a fragment of tile on which 
a priest has drawn the mystic sign of the pentacle and the 
words, " Christ has conquered," in order to prevent his 
returning to earth as a vampire. Cakes and wine are handed 
round, and the company, as they partake of these funeral 
cates, murmur reverentially, " God rest him." After the 
prehminary prayers have been offered, the coffin is taken 
up by the bearers, and the procession follows it to the church. 
In front walk the priests carrying crosses, and chanting 
as they go the prayers for the dead. In some inland towns 
the relatives chant myyiologia all the way to church, and after- 
wards to the burial ground. The coffin is placed on a bier 
in the nave of the church, while the funeral mass is performed. 
The relatives are then invited to give the deceased the fare- 
well kiss, and the procession sets out for the cemetery. 
Arrived here, the concluding prayers are said, the coffin is 
closed, and lowered into the grave. With a spade the priest 
sprinkles earth over the coffin in the form of a cross, with 
the words " God rest his soul," the male mourners doing the 



224 Greece of the Hellenes 

same in turn as they also ejaculate this prayer. The funeral 
party then return to the house of sorrow where, after perform- 
ing a ceremonial ablution, they sit down to a repast at which 
fish, eggs, and vegetables are alone served. The house must 
not be swept for three days after the dead has been carried 
out of it, and the broom used on this occasion is immediately 
burnt. 

The mourning worn by Greeks of both sexes is of a most 
austere character. Ornaments of every kind are laid aside, 
Greek ^^'^ every article of dress is made of the 

Mourning plainest black materials, cotton or wooUen, 
Customs. (.^^ jj^ ^j^g simplest fashion possible. In some 
districts a bereaved family will send all their clothing, not 
excepting underlinen and pocket handkerchiefs, to the dyers ; 
the result, as may be supposed, being funereal in the extreme. 
Women, too, frequently cut off their hair at the death of their 
husbands and bury it with them ; men on the other hand 
allow their beards to grow as a sign of sorrow. Mourning is 
also worn for a considerable period ; girls, after their father's 
death, do not abandon it until they marry, and widows and 
elderly women invariably retain it as their permanent attire. 
For in many country districts custom does not allow a woman 
to enter a second time into wedlock ; and a widow who 
ventured thus to violate public opinion would, in such a 
locality, be treated thenceforward by her neighbours with 
scant respect. 

On the eve of the third, the ninth, the twentieth, and the 

fortieth day after burial, Masses are performed for the soul of 

the departed. These functions are called 

" K61yva " kolyva ; and on the fortieth kolyva two 

sacks of flour are, among the well-to-do, 

converted into bread, a loaf of which is sent to each family 

of friends as an invitation to the commemoration service 

to be held in the church. One of the large circular copper 

pans used for baking cakes, etc., having an upright rim about 

two inches in height, is filled with boiled wheat ornamented 



Family Ceremonies 225 

on the top with elaborate patterns in dried fruits, sesame seeds, 
cinnamon, bonbons, sweet basil, etc., and sent to the church 
to be blessed, accompanied by a bottle of wine for the priests. 
This kolyva, already referred to in a previous chapter, is 
said to be S5niibolical of the death and rebirth of Nature, 
like the myth of Demeter and Persephone, and also to typify, 
according to the Christian doctrine, that man is " sown in 
corruption and raised in incorruption." When the guests 
are assembled each person takes a handful of the kolyva, 
saying as he does so, " God rest him." On the following day 
this ceremony is repeated ; and after eating a frugal meal 
together the family and their friends, accompanied by the 
priest, repair to the cemetery to erect a tombstone over the 
grave. The poor of the neighbourhood are in the evening 
entertained there with supper, during the course of which 
good wishes for the repose of the soul of the departed are 
repeatedly expressed. The plates and other articles of pottery 
and glass used at these funeral feasts are never carried away, 
but are broken, and the pieces left on the spot. Such frag- 
ments are usually found, together with earthenware lamps and 
little terra-cotta figures, in the old tombs so often discovered 
in the country, showing that this custom is the survival of 
an ancient practice. 

During the forty following days tapers are kept burning in 

the house, and on the fortieth the genealogy of the deceased 

is read before the compan}^ again assembled. 

Exhumation, prayers being also offered for the souls of all 
his ancestors. These ceremonies are repeated 
at intervals for the space of three years, at the expiration of 
which the grave is opened and the body exhumed. If it is 
found to be sufficiently decomposed, the bones are collected 
in a linen cloth, and carried in a basket adorned with flowers 
to the church, where they are left for nine days, the relatives 
visiting the church every morning with more kolyva. If 
the deceased has been a person of some standing in the 
neighbourhood, a Bishop and twelve priests take part in the 

. 15— (2385) 



226 Greece of the Hellenes 

Mass performed on the ninth day. The bones are then 
either deposited in a box and replaced in the grave, or added 
to the ghastly heaps in the charnel-house of the church. 
If, however, a body is not found at the end of the three years 
to be satisfactorily decomposed, grave fears are entertained 
that the spirit is not at rest, and has not entirely abandoned 
the body. The most terrible curse that can be pronounced 
against a Greek is couched in the words, " May the earth not 
eat thee ! " For if this curse take effect the object of it will, 
after death, become that most dreaded of all spectres, a vam- 
pire. In order, therefore, to induce the body to " dissolve," 
the same ceremonies are repeated during another three years. 



CHAPTER XVII 

TRAITS OF GREEK CHARACTER 

To understand a people thoroughly, one must have some know- 
ledge of its folk-poesy. From its culture-poets one can obtain 
but a very partial, if, indeed, any true view at all of how the 
great masses of the people feel and think. For so far as the 
work of a culture-poet lives in men's memory, it is in general 
but in the memory of a comparatively small section of the 
community, and owing to some special originality of thought 
and expression. But the nameless bards whose utterances 
are preserved, not in printed volumes, but in the hearts of 
the folk, and transmitted from generation to generation as 
their most precious knowledge, live less in proportion to their 
own originaUty than to the force and freshness with which 
they feel and think with the commonalty, and hence, in 
proportion to the spontaneous truthfulness with which they 
voice ideas, sentiments and aspirations actually and widely 
cherished. 

The characteristic traits of their mythical heroes may, 
indeed, not be commonly found among the Greek people ; 
but the character of a man's heroic ideal, however far his own 
conduct may fall short of it, always affords some indication 
of his own character, or, at least, of its possibilities. So is 
it likewise in the case of a people. For tales of heroes and 
the traits of their character could not, unaided by the printing- 
press, be preserved from generation to generation, did they 
not depict genuine folk-ideals ; and in this alone there is 
some testimony to the character of the Greek folk. Nor, 
when we look for illustrations of it in their social songs and 
stories and their historical ballads and legends, shall we find 
generally any very great discrepancy between character as 
there depicted and as it is depicted in their mythological 

227 



228 Greece of the Hellenes 

idylls and tales. The fearless adventurousness of the Greek 
mythical heroes could be fully shown only by recounting at 
length some of the stories of their magical adventures. Their 
other qualities may be more briefly illustrated. And in calling 
to mind these Greek hero-tales, the first thing, perhaps, that 
strikes one is how often both heroes and heroines owe their 
good fortune to sympathetic courtesy. Thus, for instance — 

" When the Prince woke up, he saw at a distance an old woman 
sifting flour into a great baking-pan. The flour, however, fell not into 
the pan but on the ground. And when he came nearer to the old woman, 
he saw that she was blind. Then the Prince called to her, ' Wait, 
mother, don't sift the flour, for it is falling on the ground.' ' But I 
can't see, my laddie,' said the old woman. ' Give me the sieve, mother, 
and I will sift the flour for you,' said the Prince. So he set to and 
sifted the flour, and put it in a sack which lay near, and then asked her, 
' Where are you going to carry it ? — Let me help you, mother.' The 
old woman was very much pleased with the Prince, and said to him, 
' My boy, for the favour thou hast done me, what shall I do for thee ? ' 
Said the Prince, ' Mother, give me your blessing, for you cannot help 
me in what I am seeking.' ' And what is it thou seekest ? ' asked the 
old woman. ' Wilt thou not tell me, for perchance I may be able to 
help thee ? ' " 

The finest and most significant of these courtesy-incidents 
are, indeed, those in which one who has been bespelled 
recovers his or her natural form through the power of a 
courteous act, and the love from which it springs. Thus, in 
the hero-tale from which I have just cited a passage, it turns 
out that the " old woman " was the Good Fate, and the other 
Fates had blinded her because she had never done evil to any- 
one, and had fated her never to recover her sight until someone 
should be found to love and pity her. And when the Prince 
is informed of this, it is implied that she had recovered her 
sight through his courtesy, though he had been quite unaware 
that there had been such power in his kindly act. It is 
commonly believed that the conception of love as a power — 
and, indeed, as the only power — that can transform from foul 
into fair shapes is a distinctively Christian idea. But such 
stories as these are, as every folk-lorist knows, to be found in 
folk-poesies which are very slightly — if at all — affected by 



Traits of Greek Character 229 

distinctively Christian ideas. And the inference, therefore, 
would appear to be that this is a conception of love rather 
borrowed from, than by, the folk. With courtesy there 
naturally goes gratitude. The helpful courtesy of the hero 
begets equally helpful gratitude in those, whether in human 
or animal shape, to whom such courtesy has been shown. 
Nor are such insinuated lessons in courteous and grateful 
conduct by any means confined to the hero-tales, but are 
plentifully found on the lower level of social stories. 

With the qualities of fearless adventurousness, courtesy 
and gratitude, there naturally also goes truthfulness. And 
the only instances of falsehood and treachery I have met 
with in the hero-tales are on the part of men of such ahen 
races as Jews, Negroes, and Mongols — the last being, probably 
indicated by the term 1,'iTavo<;, " beardless," and — in rare 
cases certainly — on the part of women. For true as well as 
fine is the reply of a prince to a king who, after being told a 
wonderful story, says — 

" ' Consider well, and don't tell us lies, or off will go thy head ! ' 
' A man,' replied the Prince, ' who has resolved to risk his own life 
in order to deliver a Princess from death, never tells lies.' " 

As instances from the folk-tales of keeping faith notwith- 
standing the most grievous loss and suffering occasioned 
thereby, take, for example, the following — 

" There came up the Mother of the Sea on the foam and said to him, 
' Why dost thou sigh so deeply ? — thy sighs wither the very trees ! ' 
' I am in despair because for a month or more I have cast my nets 
without taking a single fish. I have now no bread to eat, and my nets 
are torn to pieces.' ' If thou wilt promise to bring up a son of thine 
well nourished and well taught, and when he is eighteen to lead him 
here to me as a husband for my youngest daughter, thou shalt catch 
plenty of fish.' ' But I have no children ! ' ' Give me thy word, 
and that shall be my business.' He gave the Mother of the Sea his 
word. . . Months came and months went. . . The good wife was 
full of joy that she was at last to have a son after she had given up all 
hope of one. But the fisherman was sad. His wife one day asked him 
why. . . He told her. . . She was much distressed, but what could 



230 Greece of the Hellenes 

they do ? for he had promised. . . When this their onlj^ son's eight- 
eenth birthday came round, the Mother of the Sea came out on the 
foam, and said to the fisherman, ' It is time to bring me the boy.' . . . 
So the fisherman brought his son to the beach, went out in his boat to 
the deep waters, and called to the Mother of the Sea, ' I have brought 
him to the beach, go you and take him ! ' The boy escaped. But 
the Mother of the Sea said to the fisherman, ' You have kept your word 
to me, and shall catch fish as before.' " 

Another story relates how a " Beardless One," desirous 
of personating a king's son, reduced him to such straits that, 
to save his life, he took an oath that " not unless he died and 
came to life again would he declare himself to be the King's son." 
This oath the Prince kept, though it brought on him endless 
trials and difficulties, and finally death at the hands of 
the Beardless One. 

" But the Beauty [whom the Prince had rescued] hastened, took 
up his body, and by means of Water of Life and some magical words 
succeeded in reviving him. ' Ach,' she then cried, ' I have brought him 
to life again ! Now let come what come may ! ' ' But how ? ' asked 
the youth, ' was I dead ? ' ' Yea,' she replied, ' the Beardless One at 
last slew thee ; but I have brought thee to life again.' Then the boy 
realised that he was finally freed from his oath — for he had died and 
come to life again." 

Other traits of these Greek mythical heroes are their honesty, 
sense of fair play, and magnanimity. With the readiness to 
turn his hand to anything which is as characteristic of the 
ordinary Greek of to-day as of the heroes of his folk-tales, 
an exiled prince had hired himself successively to a swineherd, 
a shoemaker, and a goatherd. 

" One day, as he was driving the goats home to the fold, a young 
she-goat strayed away from the rest. . . She crossed seven hill- 
ridges, and finally lay down to rest. And when the youth approached 
there appeared before him the Wild Man, who embraced him, saying, 
' My Prince, for my sake thou hast suffered this adversity . . . and 
now in return I will make thee the greatest king in the world. . . So 
sit thee down and rest thyself.' ' Nay,' replied the Prince, ' I may not 
until I have led the goat back to my master. Then, if thou desire it, 
I will return to thee.' " 

In another story the hero, Phiaka by name, meets a rival 



Traits of Greek Character 231 

called Yiaso, who proposes a trial of strength on the under- 
standing that whoever showed himself the stronger should 
become the master of the other. And Yiaso, on being beaten, 
cries — 

" ' Well done, my Phiaka. From this time forward thou art my 
master ; bid me do what thou wilt and I will obey thee.' ' Then 
follow me ! ' said Phidka. ' With all my heart ! ' replied Yiaso ; 
and they rode on together apid came to the castle of the forty Dhrakos." 

Nor had even these forty Dhrakos a less honourable sense 
of fair play. Phiaka having been discovered " sleeping like 
one dead " — 

" ' That's lucky,' said one of the forty, ' we shall sup finely to- 
night ! ' ' Never,' cried another, ' it is not honourable to kill him 
while he sleeps. We must first awaken him and fight him one by one.' 
' No,' replied the eldest brother, ' that will not do either, for one to 
fight against forty ; we will challenge him, and if we beat him at feats 
of strength, then only will we slay him.' Should he beat us, we will 
marry him to our sister.' And to this all the brothers agreed. 

The hero having surpassed all the Dhrakos at feats — 

" ' Our word is our word,' said they, and they married him to their 
sister." 

Many examples might also be added, did space allow, of fine 
magnanimity and forgiveness of injuries. And when one 
considers that the Greeks are not a reading people, and reflects 
that these stories form a folk-bible incomparably more deeply 
impressed on the hearts of the folk than the Hebrew-Greek 
Bible which, until the present generation, many even of their 
priests could not read, it is not difficult to realise that, partial 
as may, in ordinary times, be the effect on conduct of the 
noble moral conceptions of this unwritten folk-bible, these 
conceptions nevertheless exist as a latent force, preparing 
the mind to be stirred by critical circumstances into the most 
daring and self-sacrificing enthusiasms. And the heroic 
enthusiasm which, throughout the late war — as during so 
many previous conflicts — ^has thrilled the breast of every 
Hellene may, perhaps, be better understood if, among other 



232 Greece of the Hellenes 

causes of it, we take due account of the character attributed 
to the heroes of the traditional idylls and tales of the nation. 
The two other classes of Greek folk-poesy — the social songs 
and stories, and the historical ballads and legends — ^more 
definitely, perhaps, illustrate the moral characteristics of the 
Greeks, and not in their heroic ideals merely, but also in their 
practical conduct. In perusing the social songs and stories, 
one is first of all struck by the testimony they bear to that 
devoted affection and mutual aid among members of a family 
which is, in fact, one of the chief characteristics not only of 
the Greek folk, but of all classes of the nation. Very touching 
in their simple pathos are more particularly some of the 
" Songs of Exile " elsewhere referred to. ^ Nor is fraternal 
and filial love less passionate in its practical expression. A 
sister is rescued from Charon himself by her brothers — 

" Accursed may be he who said, ' Brotherhood feels not sorrow.' 
By Brotherhood the hills are rent, and torn the spreading tree-roots ; 
Out in pursuit goes Brotherhood, and triumphs over Charon. 

Then by her hair he [Charon] seizes her ; in terror shrieks the 

maiden. 
But see ! — her Brothers follow them across the mountain passes ; 
They fast pursue old Charon till they've snatched from him their 

Sister." 

A brother rises even from the grave to fetch his sister from 
Babylon to console their mother — 

" And God has heard her weeping sore, and listened to her sorrow : 
The tombstone cold a horse becomes, and the black earth a saddle ; 
The worms are changed to Constantine, who goes to fetch his 
Sister." 

In the story of The Riddles, or the Devoted Daughter, a girl, 
" beautiful as an angel and both clever and witty," saves her 
father's life and obtains his pardon and reinstatement in his 
possessions. In another story called Moda, two boys, whose 
mother had been reduced to the deepest poverty by the 

1 See p. 202. 



Traits of Greek Character 233 

prolonged absence of their father, consulted together how 
they might best help her, and finally the elder said to the 
younger — 

" ' Thou must bind me, and sell me as a slave, so that we may get 
much money, and our mother may live comfortably. When our 
father comes back fortunate, he will redeem me.' The younger wept, 
and was unwilling. ' Thou hadst better sell me,' he said, ' and remain 
with our mother.' ' No,' said the elder, ' thou hast coaxing ways, and 
the mother will be consoled by thee ; but I am not good at coaxing, 
and she would be more unhappy without thee.' " 

Another thing that may strike one in these social songs and 
stories of the Greeks is their singular purity. Passion is, 
of course, ardently enough expressed in the love-songs, and 
some of the humorous songs are decidedly coarse. At the 
same time in the love-songs, as in the love-stories, there is a 
reticence which foregoes unnecessarily suggestive description ; 
and this is all the more remarkable considering the extreme 
outspokenness about sexual matters usual in the Levant. 
But in the social songs and stories a third important feature 
must be noted — ^the moral precepts which they convey, not 
indeed, in an explicit and dogmatic fashion, nor after the 
manner of the hero-tales, but in homely irapafivOia, often of a 
humorous character. First, we may note the story of The 
Three Precepts, of which two are identical with those of the 
Scottish story of The Baker of Beauly, all three being identical 
with the Tres Sapientice told to Domitian, as related in the 
Gesta Romanorum. These precepts are — 

" Ask no questions about what does not concern thee " ; " Change 
not the direction in v/hich thou hast set out " ; the third being 
expressed in a couplet which may be thus rendered — 

" Shouldst thou angered be at night, 
Wait until the morn is bright." 

And in consequence of complying with these precepts — 
which he has been forced to take in lieu of wages — the poor 
man not only saves his own life and that of his son, but makes 
his fortune in addition. 



234 Greece of the Hellenes 

Stinginess is reprobated in the humorous story of The 
Parson's Pigling. Searching for a man to kill his pig, the 
pappus asks a passing stranger — 

Dost thou eat pork ? ' The man was cunning and repUed, 
' Never do I eat anything of the kind ! ' ' Then thou art the man to 
come and kill my pigling.' He takes the man home with him and the 
pig is killed. The pappadhia dresses the fry, and she and the pappas 
eat it together. For the man they cook a couple of eggs ; but his 
mouth waters when he sees them eating the meat." 

In the end the man carries off not only all the rest of the 
pig, but the Parson's horse as well — 

" So the pappas goes still on foot, and all through his own fault. 
For he grudged that the man who was to kill the pig should eat a bit 
of it, and he himself got nothing but the fry." 

Coming now to what, in view of recent events in the Balkan 
Peninsula, is perhaps the most interesting division of Greek 
folk-poesy — the historical ballads and legends — ^their most 
remarkable feature is the length and unbroken continuity of 
the traditional memories of national history to which they 
testify. These ballads and legends also fall naturally into 
three great divisions illustrative respectively of Byzantine, 
of Ottoman, and of Hellenic memories — the first division 
dating from what is, perhaps, the most glorious period of the 
Byzantine Empire (867-1057) ; the second from the fall of 
Adrianople (1361) ; and the third from the Greek War of 
Independence (1821-9) down to the present day. But behind 
these folk-memories of national history, extending over more 
than a thousand years, there is, in the popular consciousness, 
a dim background of a far earlier period associated with those 
vast Pelasgian ruins found in various localities of South- 
eastern Europe. Such prehistoric cities are in folk-legend 
and folk-belief represented as having been built by a race of 
men different from the Greeks of the present day by whom 
they are designated "EXXrjve^ ol dvBpeiafievot — the " heroic 
Hellenes " — a race of giants who raised in their hands the enor- 
mous blocks of stone with which they built their strongholds. 



Traits of Greek Character 235 

" He works like a Hellene " {AovXevyei aav "EXkrjva^;) is a 
common saying at the present day. And in thus indicating 
these dim memories of the Hellenic foretime, I would endeav- 
our, in extracts from some of the more notable ballads and 
legends of the last thousand years, to bring home to the 
reader the unconquerable vigour of Greek national life as 
testified to by these inextinguishable memories of the 
vicissitudes of Greek history. 

The heroes of the earliest of the definitely historical series 
of Greek folk-ballads have, as might be expected, assumed 
more or less of a mythical character. The group of Byzantine 
ballads I refer to are those which have been classed as the 
Andronikos or Digenes Akritas Cycle. Formerly believed 
to be mere fabulous personages — Greek demigods of the 
Classical period transformed by the popular imagination — 
the heroes of these ballads have been shown by M. Emile 
Legrand to have been historical personages of the tenth 
century. Andronikos was Andronikos Doukas, a member 
of the reigning Byzantine family and governor of a 
province in Asia Minor ; Digenes Akritas was the son of 
Arete, the beautiful daughter of Andronikos, and wife of 
Mansour, the Arab Emir of Syria, who had for her sake 
abjured Islam ; and Basil, the son of this romantic marriage, 
was surnamed Digenes, ^iyevq'i — " of two races " — from 
the fact of his parentage, and Akritas from his occupation 
as guardian-in-chief of the eastern frontiers of the Empire. 
In the popular ballads, however, he is exalted to the rank of 
a demi-god, and the character of the exploits related of him 
appears to witness to the influence of the old myths connected 
with the names of Herakles, Perseus, and Bellerophon. In 
the following lines from the ballad of " Andronikos and his 
Two Sons," the Emperor Nikephoros II and three other 
historical personages are mentioned — 

" Forth goes he, and his fame is great, and no man him can daunton, 
Not even Peter Phokas, no, nor even Nikeph6ras ; 
Nor Petrotrachilos, who makes the earth and kosmos tremble ; 
Nor Konstantino does he fear, should he in fair fight meet him." 



236 Greece of the Hellenes 

According to folk-ballad — ^which is corroborated by an 
epic poem translated by M. Emile Legrand, Les Exploits de 
Digenes Akritas — this grandson of Andronikos died at the age 
of thirty-three, in the year 979. And a Cretan ballad thus 
describes his death — 

" The throes of death seize Digenes, and earth with dread is trembhng ; 
And heaven, too, is thund'ring loud, and upper kosmos quaking ; 
How can the cold grave cover him, how cover such a hero ? " 

In another Cretan ballad, however, the death of the hero 
is represented as the result of a wrestling match with Charon — 

" Long time they wrestle, but, as yet, one has not thrown the other '> 
And Charon thinks within himself by treachery he'll conquer. 
Then trips he up young Digenes, and on the ground he throws him, 
And his poor mother, left forlorn, the draught of poison swallowed." 

Very significant of the turbulence of the great vassals of 
the Emperor are the concluding lines of a ballad from Amorgos 
relating the imprisonment of a certain Konstantino, of whom 
the other nobles were jealous. His father hears of this, and 
releasing him from prison — 

" His son he seizes by the hand, and to the king he leads him. 
' O see'st thou here, my lord the king, see'st thou this Konstantino ? 
If thou should'st do him any harm, or if thou should'st destroy him, 
Then will I slay thee, O my king, yea, with thy queen I'll slay thee, 
Constantinople, thy fair town, with herds of swine I'll fill it ! ' " 

So far as they as yet have been collected, the historical 
ballads are more numerous than the historical legends. But 
of one of these last, belonging to Thrace and to the approaching 
end of the Byzantine Empire (1370), I must give at least some 
outlines in a few brief passages. It is a story of the betrayal 
to the Turks of the castle of a Greek prince, betrothed to a 
daughter of the Emperor of Constantinople — 

" There had come to Stenemacho from beyond the Balkans a Bul- 
garian family who gave out that they were relatives of the Krai of 
Bulgaria, but having found the Ottoman yoke insupportable, they had 
left their country to seek an asylum with the Christian King of Kale. 
Some doubted the truth of this story. . . The King, however, received 
the strangers kindly, and promised them his protection. The family 



Traits of Greek Character 237 

consisted of an old man, whose lips were never seen to smile, a young 
and beautiful woman, and a fair-faced youth. . . Twice had the 
Moslems besieged the fortress of Kale, and twice had the waters of 
the dammed-up torrent that rushed below the castle swept away the 
besiegers, strewing the Thracian plain with their dead bodies. The 
Ottomans at length seemed to be out-worn, their camp was broken up, 
and they retired from Kale towards the east. . . Mass was chanted 
by the priests, and the people gave heartfelt thanks to God and the 
Panaghia for their deliverance from the enemy. But before the service 
was over ... a messenger arrived, breathless, at the foot of the tower, 
and was drawn up by a rope. He brought a letter for the King con- 
taining these words : Beware of the Bulgarian woman — she is a spy. 
Looking up, and across the ravine, the King beheld, standing on a 
jutting rock above the torrent, the figure of a woman who, with out- 
stretched hand, pointed out to the enemy the secret path. ' Accursed 
be the Bulgarian ! ' he cried. And at the same moment a well-aimed 
arrow pierced him to the heart. As the soldiers standing near received 
the dying hero in their arms, and looked with rage and grief in their 
hearts towards the traitress, they saw that the King's curse had, indeed, 
fallen upon her. For what had been the figure of a woman was now 
but a black and motionless pillar of stone. And there, to the present 
day, above the rushing torrent, stands the Anathematismine ." 



Coming now to the ballads of the Ottoman period, I must 
first give an extract from " The Death of Konstantine 
Dragases," as he is called, the last of the Greek Emperors, * 
whose memory is thus commemorated — 

' Thousands of Turks had entered in by the Romano gateway ; 
And Konstantino Dragases is fighting like to Charon. 
He strikes to right, and strikes to left, and naught can stay his 

ardour ; 
Amid the Turks he throws himself, and death he sows around him. 
Like a dark cloud he falls on them, and no man can escape him ; 
'Twould seem as he'd the Turks destroy, and save Constantinople, 
Until a Turk, a stalwart Turk, at last slew Konstantino. 
O weep, my brothers, weep amain, weep for the orphaned city ! 
Our Konstantino they have slain, slain him who was our standard I " 



^ Amid the swarm of Turks assailing the walls of Constantinople, 
" the Emperor who accomplished," says Gibbon, " all the duties of a 
general and a soldier was long seen, and finally lost. . . The prudent 
despair of Constantine had led him to cast away the purple : amidst 
the tumult he fell by an unknown hand, and his body was buried under 
a mountain of the slain." — Decline and Fall, viii, p. 171. 



238 Greece of the Hellenes 

But another ballad of " The Taking of Constantinople " 
ends thus — 

" A message came to them^ from heaven, by mouths of holy angels, 
' Cease ye your psalms, and from their place take down the Holy 
Objects.' 



And when the Virgin heard the words, all tearful were her eikons. 
' O hush thee. Virgin ! eikons, hush ! mourn not, and cease your 

weeping ; 
After long years, the time shall come when ye once more shall 

dwell here ! ' " 

And the passion with which this prophecy is still believed 
in may possibly some day accomplish its fulfilment. As 
here it would be manifestly impossible even to mention the 
historical events commemorated in the Greek ballads of the 
Ottoman period, I will give only one more illustration in 
extracts from a Cretan ballad, entitled " How the Turks 
entered Sphakia " — 

" It was the morn of Friday, and it was the first of May, 
When into Sphakia came the Turks, and sword in hand came they. 
Cursed be the hour in which the Turks thus into Sphakia came, 
They ravaged all the country round, and set the towns aflame. 

" When up into the market-place the Turks had won their way, 
A Herald to the Sphakiots they sent these words to say : 

' Come now, and your submission make the Sultan's feet before. 
That he may favours grant to you, and give you gifts galore ! ' 

" ' Your gifts we're well acquainted with, with tears they aye o'erflow ; 
For ye have given them full oft to men of Crete ere now ; 
And rather than accept your terms, we one and all will die ; 
Rather than our submission make — life with dishonour buy ' 

" ' Then, then, ye Sphakiots my troops to fall on you I'll send ; 
Nor shall they leave your land again till summer hath an end. 
Your children 'mong the rocks you've hid, lest evil them betide ; 
But I will find and take them, and with me they'll e'er abide,' 



The clergy of St. Sophia. 



Traits of Greek Character 239 

"'Take, then, our wives and children all, our maidens young, take 
tool- 
Belike ye may the victors be, for miscreants are you I ' 
And so the parley ended, and began the battle's din. 
The fighting fierce and terrible the earthworks from within," etc. 

The ballads of the Hellenic period relate partly to 
historical events, but chiefly to klephtic exploits in the 
guerilla war which has been kept up continuously since the 
partial emancipation of Greece in 1829. The following lines 
are from a Thessalian ballad celebrating a victory over a 
Turkish force obtained by the famous patriot Rhigas 
Pherraios, a life of whom was, some years ago, published in 
this country. 1 

" ' What is this evil that's befall'n, and what is this great tumult ? ' 
' Rhigas Pherraios has fall'n upon, and beaten yon Moustam Bey I ' 

As many Beys as heard his words donned straight their mourning 

garments. 
The Sultan ,too, that wretched Prince, still crying is and shouting : 
' O cease ye from the battle, boys ! O cease ye now the firing. 
And I will grant to every one the boon his heart desireth I' " 

Here the ballad very significantly ends. Distrust of the 
fulfilment of Ottoman promises of reform could not be other- 
wise more scornfully expressed. And those who have com- 
plained of the perversity of the Greeks in not thankfully 
accepting all the fine things promised them may profitably 
reflect on the distrust of promises which has been only too 
justifiably ingrained in their hearts, and expressed in their 
ballads, for the last two hundred years. 

My next extract is from a ballad commemorating an incident 
which took place during the rising on Mount Olympus in 1878. 
In the charming way so common in Greek folk-poesy, an 
eagle and a partridge are the interlocutors, and even the 
decapitated head of a hero takes part in the dialogue. 

1 Rhigas Pherraios. M. E. Edmonds. 



240 Greece of the Hellenes 

" Three Partridges did tell the tale, they wept and sadly sang they ; 
And on a ridge far, far away, :n Eagle sat and questioned : 
' Tell me, dear little Partridge mine, why wailest thou and weepest ? ' 
' What shall I, golden Eagle mine, what shall I now relate thee ? 

Far better on the rocks to die than by Turks' hands to perish 1 
The bitter tears the branches burn ; the sobs, the wailing anguish 
The very earth do rend, and run with Insurgents' blood the torrents.' 
The Eagle heard it, and he cried, ' O head of Hero ! 
I saw thee, wounded as thou wert, thy dear dead brother carry ! 



' O head, dear head, what hast thou done that they have sent thee 
rolling ? ' 
' As, golden Eagle, thou hast asked, to thee I fain would answer : 
Aweary grown of slavery, I shouldered my tophaiki, 
'Gainst Turkey I rebelled and fought, and Liberty I sought for. 
Here, high on old Olympos' side, here is our native village. 
Where e'en the women bravely fight, and gladly strive for freedom. 
And Turkey, 'mid the battle fierce, and with my gun beneath me. 
Did slay and stretch me on the earth, and she my head sent 
rolling ! ' " 

As a last extract from these ballads of the Hellenic periods 
I shall give three stanzas of the popular Insurgent song 
Zijrm "E\\a<;—" Hurrah for Hellas 1 " 

" O thou, my sword belov'd, so keen, I gird. 
And shoulder thee, my Gun, my flaming Bird ; 
O slay ye, slay the Turks again. 
The tyrants scatter o'er the plain. 

Live thou, O sword I gird. 

Long life to thee, my Bird ! 
" And when, O my good Sword, I hear thy clash, 
And when, O my black Gun, I see thy flash. 
That strew the ground with Turkish slain. 
And ' Allah ' cry those dogs amain. 

No sweeter music's heard. 

Long life to thee, my Bird 1 
" The hour has come, and loud the trumpets sound ; 
Now boiling is my blood, with joy I bound ; 
The bam, the boom, the glin, glin, gloun 
Begin, and loud will thunder soon ! 

While Turks around me die, 

' Hellas! Hurrah ! ' I cry." 

A passionate patriotism is indeed one of the leading 
characteristics of the Hellenic nation at large. And every 



Traits of Greek Character 241 

true Hellene cherishes the idea of a New and Greater Greece 
which at no far distant date will, it is hoped and believed, 
consolidate the now widely dispersed forces of Hellenism 
into a united and powerful State. Great are the sacrifices 
which have already been made to this end by the nation, 
and more especially with regard to the liberation from 
Ottoman rule of Crete and Macedonia. Nor have the " Out- 
side Hellenes " proved themselves less self-sacrificingly 
patriotic than the dwellers within the limits of the Greek 
Kingdom. Many of the finest public buildings which now 
embellish Athens have been erected and presented to the 
nation by private individuals who have amassed fortunes 
abroad, several among whom have also bequeathed enormous 
sums to the fatherland for national, educational and philan- 
thropic purposes. The forces of national character are usually 
but little studied by statesmen, and with the consequence 
that the elaborate schemes on which they plume themselves 
are constantly shattered to pieces by the forces they vainly 
despise. And such ignoring of the forces of national character 
has been shown to be especially inexcusable in the case of 
the Hellenes. For a nation whose mythical heroes are such 
as we have seen them to be, whose family life is so exceptionally 
strong and pure in its mutual ties, whose political memories 
are of such an unparalleled vigour, and whose patriotism is 
so intense, cannot be permanently crushed. 



i6— (3385) 



INDEX 



Academy of Science, 85 
Acciajuoli, Antonio, Duke of 

Athens, 9 
Admiralty, the. 20 
Agricultural Society, 125 
Aigina, Isle of, 9 
Albanians, 9-10 
Alice, Princess, 53 
Amaleion, the, 206 
Amalia, Queen, 50, 53 
Andrew, Prince, 50, 53 
Annunciation, Feast of the, 173 
Apeiranthotes, Village of, 2 
Archaeological Society, 84 

Museum, 84 

Archontes, 56, 57 
Areopagus, The Modern, 41 
Army. The. 30 

Athens, 146 
Athletics, 64, 149 

Ballads of Byzantine Period, 
234-5-7; of Ottoman Period, 
238-40 

Baptismal Ceremonies, 211 

Bavurians, 11 

Ben Jonson, quotation from, 210 

Bishops, 88 

Blessing the Waters, 164 

Brigandage, 46 

Byzantine Art, 107 

Cabinet, The Greek, 15 
Carnival Observances, 163-5 
Catholics, Roman, 7 
Chalkis, Jews in, 11 
Chamber of Deputies, 14 
Charon, 221, 232 
Christmas, 160 
Christopher, Prince, 50, 53 
Church, The Orthodox, 87 
Civil Code, The, 41 

List, The King's, 53 

, The Crown Prince's, 

55 



Civil Service, The, 20 
Clergy, The Greek, 89 
Colleges, MiUtary, 36 ; Technical, 

65 ; Theological, 91 ; Training, 

67-8 
Communal Councils, 26-7 
Conscription, 30 
Cookshops, 152 
Conservatism, religious, 92 
Constantine, King, 49, 50, 57 
Constantinople, The taking of, 238 
Constitution, The Greek, 14 ; 

reform of, 18 
Corfu, Isle of, 5, 7 ; Albanians in, 

9 ; Gypsies in, 13 ; Jews in, 

11-12 
Cotton Culture, 124 
Councils, Municipal, 26-7 
Court functions, 56 
Crete, Isle of, 2 ; Moslems of, 1 1 
Criminal Code, 41 
Currant-growing, 119 et seq. 
Cultivation, primitive methods of. 

135 
Cyclades, The, 7 

Death Customs, 220 

Penalty, The, 46 

Demarchos, The, 26 

, , of Athens, 27 

, Rural, 28 

D ernes, 25 

Dhrakos, The, 180, 231 

Digenes Akritas. Epic of, 236 

Dirges, 221 et seq. 

Divorce, 193 

Donkeys, 158 

Dowries, 197 

Dragoiimis, M. Stephanos, 21, 23 

Drama, The Modem Greek, 82 

Easter Observances, 166-9 
Education. Female, 61, 66-8; 

national, 60; primary, 61, 

64-5 ; secondary, 62 



243 



244 



Index 



Elections, Parliamentary, 15, 26; 

Municipal, 26 
Eleusinian Mysteries, 213 n. 
Emigration, 133 
Episcopal Courts, 89 
Evangelismos Hospital, The, 207 
Evil Eye, Superstition of the, 186 
Evzonoi Corps, 31, 33, 57 
Eydoux, General, 30 

Family Ceremonies, 209 et seq. ; 

solidarity of the, 195 
Fasts, 93-5 
Fate, The Good, 228 
Fates, The, 182, 209-10 
" Feast of the Lights," The, 164 
Festivals, 160-70 
Fiction, Modern Greek, 80 
Food, 153 
Forests, 140 

Folk-literature, 227 et seq. 
Folk-lore Society of Greece, The, 

86 
Folk-songs, 177, 235-240 
Folk-tales, 228 
Fountains, Sacred, 172 
Funeral Ceremonies, 220 et seq. 

Gambling, 148 

Gendarmerie, The, 39 

George, The Crown Prince, 18, 24, 

53 ; the late King, 49, 54 
Gounaris, M., 21 
Government, The, 14, 15 
" Great Wallachia," 8 
Greek character. Traits of, 227 et 

seq. ; type, 2-3 ; language, 74 
Gymnasia, 63 
Gypsies, 13 

HAiDiE, The Klepht, 206 
Helene B6tsaris, 203 
Heroines, Greek, 200-3 
Historical and Ethnographical 

Society, The, 85 
Holidays, 160 
Holy Mountain, The, 103 
Holy Synod, The, 15 
Home Industries, 139 



Horse and Cattle-breeding, 141 

Hospitality, 155 

Hospitals, 34 

Hotels, 154 

Household, The Royal, 56 

Hydra, Isle of, 9 

" Independence Day," 174 

Jews in Greece, 11, 12 
Judenhetze, 12 
Jury, Trial by, 44 
Justice, Courts of, 41 ; Ministry 
of, 42 

Kalyarites, 8 
Karyes, 108 
Klithdna, The, 190-1 
Kdlyva. The, 224 
Koromilis, M. Lambros, 21, 23, 
29 

Labourers, Agricultural, 137 
Laconia, 3 

Lake Copais Co., The, 125 
Lamia, The, 180 
Latin Dukedoms of the Levant, 7 
Lavra, Convent of the, 109 
Lavrion, Mines of, 4 
Law, Courts of, 41, 42 
Legends, Historical, 234 ; Byzan- 
tine, 236 
Lenten Observances, 94, 166 
Literature, Modern Greek, 77 
" Little Wallachia," 8 
Liturgies, Greek, 97 

Main a. The " Grapes of," 4 ; 

Heroines of, 203 ; the Vendetta 

in, 5 
Mainotes, The, descendants of 

ancient Spartans, 5 
Malaria, 138 
Marriage, 193-6, 213 
Mavromichalis, M. Kyriakoules, 

14, 18, 21 
Mavroyennos, Modena, 204 
May-day, 190 
Megaspelaion, Convent of, 100 



Index 



245 



Merkouris, M. Spiros, 28 
Mesolonghi, Heroines of, 204 
Metayer System, The, 136 
Meteoron, Monastery of, 102 
Mezzo vo, 8 
Military League, The, 23 

Mission, The French, 30 

Mining, 127 

Monarchy, The, 49 

Monasteries, 100 et seq. ; The 

" Mid-Air," 101 ; of Mt. Athos. 

103 et seq. 
Morals, Rigidity of Social, 193 
Moslems, 10 

" Mother of the Sea," The, 229 
Mykonos, Isle of, 7 

Naval Mission, The British, 38 
Navy, The Hellenic, 37 
Naxos, Isle of, 2, 7 
Nereids, 180, 209, 219 
New Year, The Greek, 162 
Nicholas, Prince, 50, 53 ; Princess, 

208 
Nobility. Titles of, 56 
Nomarch, The, 25 
Nomas, The, 24 
Nuns, 115 

Officers, Military, 35 ; Naval, 

39 
Olga, Queen, 52 
Ohve-culture, 123 
Olympus, Mt.. 8 ; brigands of, 206 
Otho, King, 5, 55 
" Outside Hellenes," The, 241 

Pagan Survivals, 170 

Painters. Modern Greek, 83 

Panselenos, Manoel, 107, 108, 110 

Parish Priests, 90 

" Parnassos " Society, The, 86 

Parren, Mdme., 207 

Pastoral Life, 142 et seq. 

Patriarch, The CEcumenical, 87 

Patriarchal Customs, 196 

Patriotism, 240 

Peasants, 132-5 

Pelion, Mt., Heroines of, 205 



Periodical Literature, 75 et seq. 
Phanaviots, 58 
Phaskelon, The, 189 
Physical Culture. 63 
Politics. 74 
Porto Quaglia, 4 
" Preachers." 88 
Press, The, 72-5 
Prisons, 44-7 
Products, 116 et seq. 
Prohibited Degrees, 213 
" Punch," The Greek, 76 

Races, Mixture of, 1 
Railways, 156 
Rain, Invocation for, 192 
Rallis. M. Demetrios. 18, 21, 22 
Ritual Murders, Jews accused of, 

12 
Romaika and Romeot, signification 

of, 203 n. 
Royal Family, The, 57 

Palaces, 55, 56 

Sailors, Greek, 130 

St. Anne, Hermitage of, 110 

George of Greece, 175. 206 

John's Day, 190 

Paul, Convent of. 112 

Salonica, Jewish population of , 12 
School of Needlework, " The 

Royal Hellenic," 208 
Schools, Foreign, 85 
Service, Domestic, 200 
Sheep and Goats, 141 
Shipping, Greek, 130 
Silk-culture, 126, 140 
Sirens, 180 

Social Life, 146 et seq. 
Soldiers, Greek, 32 
Sophia, Queen, 51-2 
Spano-Vanghelli, 206 
Sphakiotes of Crete, The, 2 
Sponge-fishing, 128 
Sport, 149 
State Lotteries, 37 
Stoicheion, The, 179 
Students, University, 70 
Surnames, 58 



246 



Index 



" Swallow Song," The. 190 
Symbolisms, religious, 95 
Syra, Isle of, 7 



Tends, Isle of, 7 

Theatres, 150 

Theotokes, M. George, 14, 18, 

21-2 
" Three Evils of Destiny," The, 

182, 209 
" Three Precepts," The, 233 
Tobacco Culture, 125 
Tolerance, 10 
Travelling, 158 
Tsakones, The. 3 
Turks in Greece. 10 



University. The, 69 
Urban Life, 146 et seq. 

Vampirism, 183, 226 
Vatopedion. Monastery of, 105 
Vendetta, The, in Maina, 5 
V6niz61os. M. Elevtherios. 14, 16, 

17-19. 29 
Vlachs or Wallachs, 7-8 ; shep- 
herds, 143 ; encampments, 144 ; 
chieftains, 144 
Voskopolis, 8 

Wedding Customs, 213 et seq. 

Zacharias, Constance, 204 
Zaimes, M. Alex.. 8, 21. 24 
Zante, Isle of, 12 



THE END 



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